Naruto: Legend of Team Zero
by RainthelingeringSentiment
Summary: When Naruto managed to become a genin after thrashing Mizuki, The Sandaime realized that there wasn't enough graduates to place Naruto on his own team but when two Jōnin express interest in having them join their newly assigned teams, an idea that hadn't been heard of since Great Shinobi war had taken root inside of his head…This is the story of Team Zero. AU
1. Chapter 1

Rain: Hey everyone, RainthelingeringSentiment here and do we need to talk. Now, I have tried doing this fic twice now and while it was successful, they were taken down for some strange reasons but now I want to put it up one last time because like always, I can't keep a good fic down. So Please enjoy….**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

Mario: Here we go!

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**_Summary_**: When Naruto managed to become a genin after thrashing Mizuki, The Sandaime realized that there wasn't enough graduates to place Naruto on his own team but when two Jōnin express interest in having them join their newly assigned teams, an idea that hadn't been heard of since Great Shinobi war had taken root inside of his head…This is the story of Team Zero. AU

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**_Pairings: _**Naruto/Hinata. Anko/Iruka, Asuma/Kurenai and The others are a secret for now.

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**_Genre: _**Action, Adventure, Romance, Drama, Humor and Friendship

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**_Disclaimer:_** Again with this? I don't own Naruto. Please stop having me say this…

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**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter One: A New Idea! Memories of Distant Days_**

It was a beautiful summer night in the village of Kohonagakure no Sato. At least that is what Hiruzen Sarutobi thought as he let a wistful smile form on his lips. It had been a few hours since "grandson" Uzumaki Naruto had officially become a genin but not with ease.

In order for Naruto to become a genin of Kohona, he had to steal the forbidden scroll, had to learn a jōnin ranked jutsu, had to be betrayed by someone he thought liked him, had to be saved by someone he thought hated him and then nearly losing him to the traitor that betrayed him early on and finally defeating said traitor to finally become a shinobi of the village he loved.

Hiruzen shook his head and stared at the crisp night sky, his eyes gazing gently at the glow of the moon and stars that lit up the midnight sky with such beauty, he never wanted it to end but in his moment of revering the night sky, he never noticed that one of his shinobi had appeared behind him.

"Hokage-sama, I have arrived per your orders," The Shinobi announced his presence, starling the old Hokage greatly. Hiruzen turned around to face this shinobi only for his eye to twitch when he saw the orange book covering the shinobi's face with a perverted giggle coming from behind it.

"I called for you three hours ago Kakashi-san. Me, as well as Kurenai Yūhi and Asuma have been waiting for you. What took you so long in getting here?" The shinobi, now known as Hatake Kakashi could tell that by the tone in his voice, his leader was annoyed beyond belief and he had to come up with a fast excuse.

"I was walking on the road of life and I fell and rolled into the ditch of despair?" Hiruzen gave Kakashi a look that said _"Try again,"_ while crossing his arms, wanting a more acceptable answer.

Kakashi bit back a groan and said with a hesitant tone "Anko wanted me to accompany her to visit her fiancé, Umino Iruka in the hospital?"

Hiruzen kept the look on his face for two whole minutes before Kakashi looked down with shame and said in a defeated tone "I lost my newest edition of Icha Icha Paradise and spent three hours looking for it…"

Hiruzen nodded, believing that before asking "Is two weeks of D-rank missions worth finding it, Kakashi-san?" Kakashi, with his "eye" smile answered with "Why yes. Yes it was Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen couldn't help but smile at his young friend's love of the (in)famous of the orange book (being a secret fan himself) and decided to explain everything to him in his office where Kurenai and Asuma were waiting for them.

Hiruzen nodded and motioned for Kakashi to follow him back into his office Kakashi followed and noticed there were tons of paperwork on Hiruzen's desk, more than enough to make Kakashi flinch at the size of them. "We had that expression too," Kurenai said with a light grin as Asuma nodded in agreement.

Hiruzen chuckled at this and sat down in his large, comfortable chair and motioned for Kakashi to sit in the chair in between Kurenai and Asuma. Kakashi sat down and gave the two a nod which the two returned and then the three of them turned around to face their leader as he began to talk.

"The reason I summoned you all here to meet with me is the team formations. I was hoping one of you three could add one last genin to your team roster. I do understand that this is a rather late request but his graduation was a last minute surprise."

Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma looked at each other with shocked looks on their faces. The Sandaime was asking one of them to take on a genin as another member of their four man team? A five man team wasn't unheard of but it was rare in Kohona.

"So who is this genin?" Kakashi asked with a tilt of his head, his eyes solely focused on the man before him.

The Sandaime merely smiled and said "Why our very own Orange pranking hurricane, Uzumaki Naruto."

While Kurenai and Asuma were instantly interested in how the prankster had managed to pass at the last minute, Kakashi merely sighed as he stood up from out of his chair with his lazy "eye" smile and said "As much as I would like too, I would have to decline. Three kids are already hard to control, adding the loud mouthed prankster known as Uzumaki Naruto is just asking for an early retirement."

Hiruzen merely closed his eyes at the skilled shinobi's answer.

He knew that Kakashi held a small amount of resentment towards Naruto due to him losing his sensei to the sealing of the Kyūbi twelve years ago and also for his own failings but he hoped for him to get over it but it seems like he wasn't anytime soon.

Still, it was his choice to decide so he wasn't going to fault him for that, regardless of the reasons.

With a sigh, Hiruzen simply replied "That's fine Kakashi-san. You may go and do not forget, D-ranks for two weeks." Kakashi gave the three people in the room a peace sign and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hiruzen then turned his attention to his son and his friend, Kurenai and said "Are you two going to turn this down as well?"

Kurenai looked at her elder and simply said "Actually….I would love to have Naruto on my team. I see a lot of potential in him that I can harness to make my team better He already proved that by fighting and beating a Chūnin immediately after learning a forbidden technique."

Asuma looked at Kurenai with a shocked look on his face but then turned to his father with a grin on his face and said "I would like to have him join my team as well. I mean he was able to steal the forbidden scroll when a lot of older, seasoned shinobi couldn't do and managed to knock you out and escape. All while wearing orange. That takes raw talent to pull off."

"And not to mention his speed and stealth," Kurenai added with a soft smile. "He was able to escape a few ANBU at top speed after using his brand of "Art" on the Hokage monument and as my esteemed colleague added, while wearing the neon orange get-up he always has on."

Hiruzen was shocked. He had two people wanting Naruto to join their team for reasons he could not fault. This wasn't unheard of but this was a special case for him. That's when his mind sparked an idea. An idea that has never been heard of since his days in the great Shinobi war.

"I believe…" Sarutobi said slowly, a coy smile forming on his face. "I have the perfect solution…"

* * *

**_Konoha_**

**_The next morning_**

"I can't believe it! I'm finally a Shinobi!" A boy with wild, untamable blond hair, shining blue eyes, three whisker marks on each cheeks, a blindingly orange and blue jacket which had a lightly torn lavender scarf on the left sleeve, a pair of slightly baggy orange pants, a pair of blue shinobi sandals, and his slightly torn hiate-ite said shouted out in glee as he walked down the street from the hospital where he had stayed with his wounded sensei, Umino Iruka.

The boy wanted to stay with his hurt sensei but Iruka told him to go to the academy to see what team he was on. Naruto didn't want to leave but when his sensei's scary fiancée, Mitarashi Anko arrived, Naruto darted for the door.

It wasn't that he hated her, it was that after a cruel prank he had played on her the day before he painted the Hokage Monument, she swore she would get revenge on him and he believed it.

As much as Naruto loved the face that he was now a shinobi of the village he loved, He did have the bitter taste in his mouth about _how_ he became a full-fledged shinobi. It nearly cost him the only person that truly cared for him as a person but deep down, he was glad it happened.

Otherwise, he would still be all alone, never knowing that anyone cared for him. "I wonder what everyone will think when they see me with my hiate-ite." Naruto wondered to himself as he looked at the gorgeous blue sky, smiling wistfully to himself. "I wonder what Sakura-chan will think when she sees me tomorrow." He said after a few moments with a light blush on his face.

He hoped she would stop chasing Uchiha Sasuke and start to like him just as much as he liked her but that could wait because today, his career as a Shinobi of Kohonagakure no Sato will take off and soon, he would be named the Godaime Hokage of Kohonagakure no Sato.

He truly believed it.

As Naruto walked along the road leading to the academy, he never noticed that there was a girl with pale skin, indigo colored hair, a grey jacket with the Hyūga clan insignia on each shoulder of her jacket, navy blue skin tight pants, a pair blue shinobi sandals, beautiful lavender pearl eyes and a hiate-ite hanging from her neck but on her left ring finger was an orange rubber band.

"H-He graduated a-after all," The girl stuttered out with a light blush on her pale cheeks, a small smile pulling at her lips as she watched the blond haired boy walk towards the academy. "Spying on Uzumaki again, eh Hinata-chan?" A voice suddenly said from behind her.

Shrieking in surprise, the girl now known as Hyūga Hinata turned around at full speed and without warning, she hit the person in the chest, sending the person stumbling backwards and falling to the ground in pain.

When Hinata got her bearings, she noticed that the person she hit had shaggy brown hair that was held up by his hiate-ite that was tied around his forehead, two red triangle marks on his cheeks, a grey jacket with black fur around the hood and wrists of the jacket, a grey pair of pants and a pair blue shinobi sandals.

Hinata immediately recognized the person on the ground shouted/stuttered "K-Kiba-kun!" She ran over to him and kneeled on the ground to help him up but he didn't budge. Instead, he kept coughing.

"It's ok Hinata-chan, the ground broke my fall…" The person now known as Inuzuka Kiba coughed out with a light grin on his face.

"I tried to warn him but knowing Kiba-san, he never listens," A stoic voice rang out above them.

The two looked up and saw a boy with a long light green overcoat with a large collar covering up most of his face, round black glasses, a huge brown afro, blue pants and a pair of blue shinobi sandals standing on the tree above them, holding a small white puppy with black floppy ears in his arms.

The puppy leaped out of the boy's arms and fell onto the chest of the wounded Inuzuka's chest, barking happily at his owner. Kiba patted his puppy on the head but quickly turned his head upwards at the boy and said "Then why didn't you stop me?"

The boy simply shrugged his shoulders and replied "I decided that you should learn this lesson on your own instead of me helping you."

Kiba grunted and with the help of Hinata, he stood up on his own two feet, jokingly saying "You're acting like a real smartass today, Shino-san," Shino didn't reply to what Kiba had said but instead gave a brief shrug and chuckled softly, leaning his shoulder on the tree next to him.

Kiba turned his attention back the shy Hyūga Hinata and said "Hey Hinata, I have an idea. Why don't you go talk to Uzumaki? I mean you've been spying on him for years and yet you haven't said a word to him. I mean this could be your last chance since we are shinobi of Kohona now. Anything could happen after this."

Hinata looked at Kiba with a startled look on her face before a light blush covered her cheeks. She looked down and started to poke her two index fingers together while whispering something.

It was no secret to anyone of their class that Hyūga Hinata had a huge crush on Kohona's number one prankster known as Uzumaki Naruto.

Even when the three first met three years ago, they both knew that she liked him but she was and still very shy and when she was even just a little bit nervous, she would start doing poking her index fingers together and Kami forbid they should ever talk about Naruto in front of her.

Everyone had been trying to help her come out of her shell so she could at least say "Hi" to the blond haired boy but she would always chicken out and go to her nervous phase.

"What did you say Hinata? We couldn't hear you," Kiba said as he was about to reach for Hinata's shoulder until a fresh memory of him getting hit in the chest stopped him. He didn't even see the small smile Shino had under his collar.

"I-I don't know. I wouldn't know what to s-say," Hinata replied, the small blush on her face growing bigger by the second.

Kiba stared at her and simply replied "It's better than watching him behind a tree and being that weird, but cute, Hyūga girl." Hinata shook her head wildly and mumbled something about getting to the academy before they wound up late.

The two friends watched as Hinata slinked off towards the direction the academy was without them in silence…Which Kiba broke when he suddenly said "Maybe we should just tell Uzumaki-san about her crush so he can talk to her about it"

Shino stared at his feral looking friend with an unknown look and said "That would be illogical."

Kiba glanced at his friend and grunted out "Why not?" Shino shook his head and answered.

"Because, we do not know how Uzumaki-san would react to this at all. He is unpredictable like a wild wind. He could do anything from accept her feelings for him to downright rejecting her, making her more introvert than she already is as well as crushing her self-esteem…."

"Well when you put it that way..." Kiba muttered sarcastically with an eye roll.

"…It's best we don't do anything at this time," Shino finished, making Kiba nod in understanding as he sighed sullenly before they started to run after their female friend. He hated when his friend was right.

When Shino and Kiba caught up with Hinata, They noticed that she was talking to a girl with platinum blond hair with a long platinum blond bang falling over her right eye, a purple ribbon in her hair, blue iris-less eyes, a purple midriff shirt, a short purple dress with her hiate-ite tied around her waist like a belt, white wrappings wrapped around from her the top of her stomach to her knees, long white and purple armbands, and blue shinobi sandals.

"Oh great….Ino…." Kiba muttered under his breath in annoyance. Shino looked down at his friend and bit back a sigh. He knew that Kiba and Ino couldn't stand each other but since they both were friends with the shy Hyūga, they called a small truce.

They watched as Ino waved her arms around in some dramatic fashion, letting Shino know she was telling Hinata one of her many shopping trips with her friends who were nowhere to be seen at the moment.

As Kiba and Shino walked closer to the two, they could hear Ino shouting "And Then Shikamaru decided to just drop my bags in the middle of the road! Can you believe that?" Hinata shook her head as she giggled, a small smile forming on her face.

Hinata had always loved when Ino told her these stories because it truly made her laugh and makes her take her mind off of a few things.

Namely, Uzumaki Naruto.

Ever since she first saw the blond haired boy seven years ago, she always knew he was different from everyone else.

Everyone in the entire village knew that she was the princess of the Hyūga clan. One of the most prestigious clan in all of Kohona but coming from a prestigious like the Hyūga clan wasn't good for Hinata at all. For most of her life, no person her age both inside and outside of her clan would never play with her due to fear of her clan.

She was all alone.

It was until the start of summer when she met the unpredictable, number one, hyperactive blond haired boy named Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

**_Flashback_**

_"__What's wrong Eye-less? Why don't you try hitting us back?!" _

_A seven old Hinata stood in the middle of a ring that was made up of five ten year old boys, each of them taunting and making fun of her. She hadn't even figured out what had happened. One moment, she was playing on a swing and when she leapt off, she accidently landed on one of the boys. _

_She had tried apologizing to him but he began to call her mean names and soon, his friends and joined in, leaving them to this predicament. Tears started to well up in her eyes as well as fall down her cheeks as the boys began to push her around the circle, all of them calling her "Eye-less freak," while laughing cruelly at her but that all stopped when one kid was hit by a rock in the side of the head._

_"__Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" Turning her head, she saw him._

_Standing there with a torn white shirt that had an orange spiral in the middle of it and blue shorts was an eight year old boy with sun kissed skin and bright ocean blue eyes and blond hair that seemed to make the color yellow jealous but there was one thing that stood up on him._

_On each of his cheeks were three whiskers marks. _

_"__Well, Well Well…" The leader of the bullies said as he pushed Hinata one last time on the ground, cracking his knuckles with a small smirk on his face. "If it ain't our punching bag. Where have you been?"_

_Her blond haired savior merely frowned and narrowed his eyes before running off into the lush green bushes behind him, causing the boys to run after him, jeering "Don't run punching bag!" and "We'll catch you sooner or later!" All while she watched in awe._

_What seemed like hours, Hinata had stayed there and waited for him in case he came back but when he didn't, she merely bowed at the direction he had ran to and said to herself "Thank you…" Before turning her head to see a Hyūga guard standing in the distance, waiting for her. _

_After letting the guard bow to her, Hinata walked back to her residence, all while looking back at the park, hoping to see a hint of her blond savior there._

**_Konoha National Park_**

**_The next day_**

_After training with her father concluded, Hinata was allowed to go to the park once again and this time, to her surprise, she saw her blond savior there, sleeping on a bench that was there and shivering. _

_Frowning at this, she walked towards him at a brisk pace and silently placed her jacket over his sleeping body and smiled as his shivering soon stopped._

_"__Thanks…It's pretty darn cold out here…" The small boy murmured softly while sniffling lightly as Hinata sat on the ground in front of the bench with a cross of her legs. She was glad she was able to help him stay warm like he helped her yesterday against those bullies. _

_"__You're that girl that those meanies were hurting…" The boy said after turning his head to look at her little bit more. Hinata nodded and gave a small giggle._

_"__A-and you're that boy that got them to stop bullying me…Thank y-you," She said as a shy smile overcame her, causing the boy to laugh lightly._

_"__It was no problem! Those guys aren't that fast. They could never catch me," The boy boasted but then shivered into her jacket then saying "Thanks again for this really warm jacket."_

_"__Y-You're welcome," The small girl answered with a small smile then added with a stutter "A-Ano…My name is Hyūga Hinata…And I was w-wondering if y-you'd like t-t-to be friends…" _

_The boy turned around to face her and she blinked in surprise at seeing his warm, welcoming blue eyes up close, which caused her to blush heavily. "Uzumaki N-Naruto and w-would you really want to be friends with me?" He asked with a hopeful look in his eyes, something which caused to nod happily._

_With a grin threatening to split his face, her new friend Naruto laughed happily while saying "Yahoo! I have a new friend! We'll be best friends forever! Believe it!"_

_It was from the moment that the two had become best friends._

* * *

**_Flashback end _**

That was the day she and Naruto became friends. Every single day in that year, those two would met in the park with one of her Hyūga guards and play with Naruto for hours, often having many battles before she would go home but after that year, Naruto had stopped coming to the park.

Hinata would stay there and wait for him to come but after the tenth time he didn't arrive, she stopped going as well, much to her great disappointment.

It would be two years later that she was enrolled in the academy and had met Shino and Kiba and soon they became her friends but her heart had a special place for her best friend, Naruto. It wasn't a surprise that Hinata was ecstatic to find out that Naruto had enrolled into the academy a few years later but she was so insecure that he wouldn't remember her; she never tried to rekindle their friendship.

She instead watched him from a distance. Hoping that one day, she could get the courage to speak to him once again and have her best friend backbut as she thought this, she saw Naruto leaping over the fence of the academy and walking into it and just then, Kiba's words came flowing back to her.

_"Why don't you go talk to Uzumaki? I mean you've been spying on him for years and yet you haven't said a word to him._ _I mean this could be your last chance since we are shinobi of Kohona now_, _anything could happen after this." _

Kiba's words seemed echoed in her mind as she listened to Ino ramble on about heading over to Shikamaru's place to see if he had woken up yet but not being able to find him nor her friend Chōji. Hinata nodded at her friend and whispered "I'm sorry Ino-chan…I-I have to g-go," before running off, leaving Ino to blink in confusion and wave at her friend.

_'Kiba-kun is right,'_ Hinata thought to herself as she stared at the ground with a nervous look on her face. _'I could never get a chance to talk to Naruto-kun again if I don't do it now!'_ Hinata then looked up with a rare look of determination on her face as she darted passed her friends and headed towards the Academy.

"Yo Hinata, what's up?" Kiba asked with a confused look on his face as he watched Hinata run off to the academy. Shino simply raised his right eyebrow and simply responded "I think she's going to take your advice, Kiba-san."

Shino then walked off to follow his shy friend, leaving Kiba alone in the middle of the road leading to the academy, his confused look still on his face.

"What Advice?"

Shino merely chuckled at his friend's forgetful nature and walked off with Kiba, leaving an annoyed Ino alone to steam in silence.

Why was she annoyed?

She had just spent half an hour searching for two best friends Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji and she hasn't made any head way in finding them. She checked their houses, their favorite spots, everything and so far, she couldn't find them!

And when she finally found her friend Hinata, who she was certain would help her, she suddenly darts off while she tried to explain why she needed help!

"I swear when I find those two, I'm going to utterly kill them, obviously," She muttered to herself as she trekked around the village to find them.

* * *

**_Academy Roof_**

Little did Ino know, the two people she was going to kill were on the roof of their shinobi academy, snacking on a bag of chips as they looked at the clouds passing them by.

One of the boys had onyx eyes, black hair which was in a ponytail at the top of his head with a small bundle of spiky hair poking out of it, making his head shaped like a pineapple, a slim body shape, a short light green shirt that reached his ribs with his hiate-ite wrapped around his left sleeve, a skin tight fishnet shirt that was underneath the light green short shirt, grey pants and a pair of blue shinobi sandals.

The second boy had chestnut brown hair that was covered by his blue hiate-ite hat (thing), dark brown eyes, two faint red spirals on each of his cheeks, A chubby body shape, a dark green shirt, a light green shirt with the kanji for "Eat" (or "Food") underneath the dark green shirt, a white scarf around his neck, grey shorts, and a pair of blue shinobi sandals. These two were Akimichi Chōji and Nara Shikamaru and they were the best friends/brothers of the person that was hunting them down like animals.

Feeling a cold chill run down his spin, Chōji leaned up off of the roof with a deep shudder, his skin slightly pale and said "Hey Shika?"

Shikamaru looked up at one of his closest friends with a bored look on his face and replied "Yeah?"

Chōji asked "Did you feel a sudden burst of cold air a few moments ago?"

Shikamaru didn't have any idea what his friend was talking about until he felt something cold rush down his spine, causing him to lean up in alert.

"How troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered as he looked down at his friend, with slightly pale complexion and replied "I did…That must mean two things. One, Mom is looking for us or two, Ino is looking for us" He shudder deeply at mentioning his mother and Ino.

If there were any two people he feared in this world, it was his mother and Ino. Not only because they were females with intense strength.

Oh no.

It was because they fly off the handle at the lightest insult or back talk and wind up hitting you over and over again with such brutal strength, it was like fighting one S-Rank Nuke-nin that has over nine overly powerful puppets under his command in a no hold barred match in the middle of a place with lake around it with no back up and with one of your arms brutally torn off of your body and with your voice box crushed and not only that, you're losing blood very fast due to four swords being impaled in your back.

And that was just describing Ino. Shikamaru's mother was a lot worse than that. So much worse that he doesn't even have an analogy for her wrath yet but when he finds a good one, he would definitely place his mother in that category.

Shikamaru knew that despite having Chōji with him, regardless of who was looking for them, they weren't going to win that battle. Chōji realized this too and pretty much summed up all of their fears in one sentence.

"We're boned."

* * *

**_Yamanaka Ino_**

Ino felt a smirk form on her face as she waltzed up to the academy with her hands formed into a fist. She knew that this was the only place she hadn't check and seeing the clouds in the sky and knowing Shikamaru and Chōji, those two slackers would be on the roof, snacking down on a bag of chips while looking at the clouds in comfort, thinking that they were safe.

But they weren't. Oh no, they were far from safe and she would make sure of that or her name wasn't Yamanaka Ino.

* * *

**_Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji _**

Shikamaru and Chōji leaned over the edge of the roof and saw Ino standing there with the most evil looking smirk that ever graced her face as she looked down from the roof and towards the door.

Shikamaru had to cover Chōji's mouth and pulled him away from the edge of the roof not only to make sure Ino didn't see them, but to make sure the gentle giant's terrified scream didn't alert Ino to where they were.

Shikamaru sat his friend down but kept his friend's mouth covered with his hand and whispered _"Ok Chōji, We are in deep trouble here. Ino knows we're here but she doesn't know where we are here. Now, Class doesn't start for the next ten minutes so here's the plan. You know of Haruno's and Ino's rivalry right?"_

Chōji nodded his head with a roll of his eyes. Everyone knew of her legendary rivalry with Haruno to capture the last Uchiha's heart….As much as it annoyed him.

_"Good, now if I know Haruno's walking route right, she should be here in three to five minutes. Since Ino cannot pass up a challenge from Haruno, Ino will no doubt forget whatever she was doing before and put all of her effort in beating Haruno. So what we want to do is simple, keep ourselves away from Ino until Haruno arrives. Understood?"_

Chōji nodded and Shikamaru felt Chōji smile in his hand and without a moment's notice, Shikamaru uncovered Chōji's mouth and the two darted for the door but when they were near the door, they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Chōji and Shikamaru got nervous and hid behind the wall where the door was and hugged each other tight, saying their last goodbyes but that's when they heard a voice that wasn't Ino's ask "So Hinata, what are we doing up here?"

Shikamaru and Chōji's eyes widened in shock.

That was Naruto's voice and apparently Hinata was with him. Shikamaru and Chōji looked at each other and quickly let each other go with a look of embarrassment on their faces. Shikamaru and Chōji looked at each other and whispered at the same time_ "That never happened."_

The two shook hands and smiled at each other before Chōji asked/whispered _"So, what's Naruto and Hinata doing up here all alone?"_

Shikamaru shook his head and replied in a whisper _"I don't know but it's too troublesome to ask them so we should leave them be,"_ But before either of them could move out of their hiding spot, Hinata spoke up.

"I-I wanted t-to talk to y-you without a-anyone around…" Shikamaru could see Naruto's confused face when the two eavesdroppers peaked their heads out of their hiding spot. _"Do you think Hinata's finally going to tell Naruto she likes him?"_ Chōji asked in a whisper as he looked at his friend's face, excitement written on the large boy's face.

_"No clue. Maybe we should stay here and listen. This could be pretty damn good…"_ Shikamaru replied in a whisper, immediately interested in what his two peers were going to talk about.

_"I agree with you two. I've been waiting for this since forever," _Another person said in a whisper as two hands touched Chōji's and Shikamaru's shoulders. The two felt their bodies stiffen at the touch and immediately but very slowly, with fear etched on their faces, the turned to see Ino's smirking face in between them.

_"I-I-I-Ino-chan? H-How did y-you…?"_ Chōji whispered at his female best friend.

_"Hush Chōji-kun, I want to hear this," _Ino said with a slight frown in his direction, making him shut up immediately. He knew once Ino was interested in something, it was best to keep his mouth shut.

Shikamaru could feel a smirk trying to form on his face. He knew that this would distract Ino way better than Haruno would, therefore, he should thank Naruto and Hinata for getting Ino distracted enough to make her forget about killing them.

* * *

**_Hyūga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto_**

"N-Naruto-kun…Do y-you remember w-who I a-am?" Hinata asked after few moments of trying to work the nerve up to ask Naruto this.

Naruto smiled at the shy Hyūga and replied "Of course I do," Hinata smiled slightly and felt her face slowly heating up as she poked her two index fingers together.

"We're in the same class together, right?" Naruto asked as he felt his heart miss a beat as he stared at Hinata as she continued to blush and poke her index fingers together. Something about her did seem familiar to the blond haired Shinobi but he didn't know what.

Hinata felt her heart break when she heard him say that and felt herself growing smaller by the minute. "I-Is that a-a-all you r-remember m-me from?" This is why she avoided talking to Naruto for all these years. To avoid the pain that she knew she would feel if she had talked to him.

Her best friend had really forgotten her but she didn't blame him for forgetting her though. She felt that she was generally a forgettable person it just hurt that her point was proven.

By Naruto of all people.

"I-I'm sorry for b-bothering you N-Naruto-kun. I-I'll just leave y-you alone…" Hinata said tearfully as tears fell from her eyes and slowly traveled down her face.

Naruto noticed that tears were falling from Hinata's lavender colored eyes and felt an immense guilt forming in his chest. He didn't know what he did to make her cry and he knew that he didn't mean to do it but seeing her cry made him suddenly think of a girl he met when he was little.

He was at the park, playing all alone on the jungle gym when he first saw her. She was standing in the middle of some assholes with tears in her eyes, looking as if she was going to break down at any second.

She was his best friend until something happened. A headache began to grow when he tried to think of it but the only thing he could remember was the girl's name and her lavender scarf that he had kept in memory of his first friend. Her name was Hinata…Whoever this girl was reminded him of his best friend so much that it almost scared him.

That's when it hit him.

The Indigo colored hair, pale skin, her lavender colored pearl eyes, the orange rubber band on her finger. His breath caught in his throat and his heart was beating at an insane rate. Was Hinata and his best friend one in the same? Was Hinata the person he was worrying for in the last few years? Was this really his best friend?

How the hell could he miss that connection? He had been worrying about his friend for years but it was now he found her, in the guise of that admittedly cute girl that was too shy to even glance at him. He was truly the idiot everyone had called him for this folly but now that he remembered this, he couldn't allow her to leave.

Naruto saw that Hinata was going to make a run for the entrance/exit to the roof and reached for her left wrist. Hinata turned around with tears falling from her eyes as she felt Naruto's right hand gripped around her left wrist. Before Naruto could really stop himself, he pulled the upset Hinata into his chest and gave her a gentle hug. Hinata was stunned at this sudden move by her friend/crush and simply stuttered out "N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto let a gentle smile form on his face as he looked at his friend and asked "You're Hyūga Hinata…My best friend…"

Hinata looked up at Naruto with blurry eyes in confusion before it occurred to her. He called her his best friend. Did that mean that he remembered her after all? She really needed to make sure to ease her mind as well as her heart so she asked, "Where did we meet?"

Naruto tilted his head with a small look of concentration on his face before a slow smile formed on his face. "We met at in a park when we were little. It was summer I think. I happened to see you on the jungle gym being bullied by those assholes."

"Yeah…" Hinata said, interrupting him with a blush on her face despite the tears still falling from her face. "And right when they were pushing me around, you threw a rock at one of them and said…"

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size," Naruto recounted with a faint smile on his face, remembering that those bullies had chased him but at some point he had managed to lose them without having to get beaten up.

At this point, Hinata told him "I was so worried that the first chance I got I went to the park to find you…." With a small teary laugh leaving her lips. She could still remember waking up her mother and father, telling them about the boy and then asking to go to the park to see if he was there.

"I remember it was really cold despite being summer and I was freezing until I felt this really warm jacket come over me…" Naruto grumbled out with a small chuckle.

Hinata nodded at this and laughed softly, replying "T-That was my jacket, You thanked me and said it was chilly out there," And that was no joke, she was cold from the moment she gave him her jacket to when she got home with her jacket.

"I remembered you then too…You were that girl I had saved…." Naruto told her softly while sharing her smile with her.

"And I thanked you for that and all you did was boast about how you were faster than them," Hinata giggled out while Naruto laughed. "I then told you my name and asked if you wanted to be friends…"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and said "I did and I couldn't believe it that someone wanted to be my friend…My first friend…" his voice started to fade off as he glanced down at her and felt a lot of guilt. Despite them slowly drying, he had caused those tears on her face because of his dumb self no recognizing her at all.

Meanwhile, Hinata stared up at the boy in front of her and felt guilt well up in her heart. Despite the brief moment of not recognizing her, he had remembered her very quickly and even remembered the conditions they had met under. Why hadn't she done this before? It would have saved her a lot of anguish,

The two stared at each other for a long time before a smile formed on both of their faces. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I'm sorry I hadn't recognized you from the start…." Naruto introduced himself like he did when he first met her as he continued to stare into Hinata's eyes.

"And I-I'm Hyūga H-Hinata. I forgive you and I'm sorry w-we were apart for s-so long," Hinata replied with a blush on her face as she continued to stare at Naruto's eyes then without warning, Hinata hugged Naruto with such force that the two of them fell on the roof.

Naruto leaned up and saw that Hinata was on his lap, sobbing into his chest but he know that she wasn't crying out of pain or sadness. She was crying because she was happy. Naruto wrapped his arms around the crying Hyūga and hugged her as tightly as she was hugging him.

They finally had their best friend back.

* * *

**_Ino-Shika-Cho Team_**

Meanwhile, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio looked at each other in confusion as they watched the scene unfold before their eyes. They couldn't hear what they were saying due to the distance they were hiding in but they saw everything.

_"Are Hinata-san and Naruto-san together or something?"_ Chōji asked either of his two friends in a whisper but kept his eyes on the two people that they were spying on. Shikamaru stared at Chōji and simply replied _"I don't know. What about you Ino?" _

When Ino didn't answer him, Shikamaru looked at her and noticed that she was staring with huge shining eyes Shikamaru dubbed as "The fangirl eyes" Whenever Sasuke was around, she would get this look in her eyes and it would annoy Shikamaru to no end.

Ino smiled as she continued to watch her friend huge the blond haired boy back. She may have not liked Naruto all that much due to his troublemaker status but she found this moment between him and her best female friend very adorable.

Before Shikamaru or Chōji could stop her, Ino was already in front of the two. "So, when did you and Naruto become a couple?" Hinata and Naruto snapped out of their embrace and looked at the smirking Ino before a light blush formed on Naruto's face and a deep blush on Hinata's.

"It's not like that Ino," Naruto said with a frown on his face, he had just found his best friend and here comes "Motor-mouth Yamanaka" saying stupid things.

"H-He's r-right Ino-chan," Hinata mumbled out, looking down at the ground which looked very orange, poking her index fingers together. "I-It isn't l-like that a-at all. We were best friends…We just lost contact is all…"

Despite having her best friend back, her crush for him didn't diminish at all. In fact, her crush for the blond haired shinobi grew during their talk but now that she has him back, maybe she can slowly let him know that she cares for him more than a best friend.

Ino's smirk seemed to widen at this and simply asked "Then why are you sitting in his lap?" Hinata and Naruto eyes widened at this piece of information. Somehow during their hug, Naruto found himself sitting down on the ground with Hinata in his lap.

Hinata, with a redder than red face, let out a squeak before rising up to stand but she didn't realize that Naruto's head was above hers so when she rose to the air, she hit Naruto's chin, making him not only biting his tongue but knocking him unconscious as well. Ino covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter.

Hinata tilted her head in confusion, her blush finally going down but when she saw Ino pointing behind her, Hinata's blush came back full force when she realized that during her 'moment', she knocked out Naruto.

"Ino, you're so troublesome," Shikamaru drawled out from behind Hinata and the knocked out Naruto. Hinata turned around and noticed that Chōji was by his side, chuckling quietly at this predicament.

"Spying on the new couple like that," Shikamaru continued with a bored look on his face, ignoring the small gasp from Hinata's lips.

Ino put her hands on her hips with a look of indifference on her face before saying "If I remember right, you two were spying on them before I showed up so if I'm troublesome for doing that, then what are you?"

Shikamaru had the decency to blush and look away from his blond friend and muttered "The bell is going to ring in a few minutes…" Ino snorted at her friend's comment and suggested that they should take Naruto to the nurse before class started or else he would miss the team formations.

Chōji heard what his two friends said and politely asked Hinata to move so he could pick up the unconscious Uzumaki. Hinata nodded and watched as Chōji picked up her best friend and marched down the hall with Shikamaru by his side.

But what Ino said had stuck in her mind. She had completely forgotten that the team formations were supposed to happen today. She suddenly felt a sense of dread come over her at this thought. What if she and Naruto were on two different teams? She had just gotten him back into her life.

She didn't want to wind up being separated from him again.

As if hearing Hinata's thoughts, Ino put her right hand on Hinata's left shoulder and said "Don't worry Hinata-chan, I'm sure you two will be on the same team. No worries…" Hinata looked at her friend and smiled in appreciation at her friend's reassurance but frowned again when Ino left to join her friends. She hoped Ino was right.

* * *

Rain: And that my friends…Is the start of something I hope you all enjoy. Until the next chapter, I'm Rain and have a nice day.

Mario: See you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

Rain: Wow…So much love from you guys. Thank you for all the wonderful support. It's now time for chapter two! So sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Two: Thoughts, Books and Bad News_**

As Ino and Hinata walked down the stairs, Hinata was getting more nervous with each stair she stepped on.

She had just reunited with her best friend/crush, Uzumaki Naruto and she was afraid to be split apart from him when she just got him back. She wished she could take Ino's advice but it was a fear that planted itself deep inside of her soul. Hinata walked into the classroom with her eyes towards the ground. She walked to her seat between Kiba and Shino and sat down without saying a word.

Kiba and Shino noticed their friend's strange behavior but while Kiba could say the right words due to the fact he didn't know everything, Shino had one of his bugs planted on his friend so he knew everything that happened between her and the enigma known as Uzumaki Naruto but he didn't spy on her though.

He told Hinata and Kiba a day before that (with their permission of course), he would place a bug on them just in case something happened during a mission, he would able to find them (If they were on the same team that is).

He understood what her concern was about the team formation and even though he would be glad that he would be on the same team as his two best friends, he would be happy if Naruto replaced him because his female best friend would have her best friend back.

But Shino knew Kiba wouldn't share the same train of thought he did if somehow Naruto was paired with Hinata and himself. Kiba would throw a fit. Shino placed his left arm on the nervous Hyūga's right shoulder and simply said "Do not worry Hinata-san; I'm sure Uzumaki-san will be on the same team as you."

Hinata looked at him with a startled expression on her face, trying to figure out how he knew what she was thinking until she realized that he had one of his bugs placed on her.

She couldn't help but look down at her desk, sporting a blush on her pale face, realizing that her (second) best friend had seen that moment between her and Naruto. Kiba on the other said let a very loud "WHAT ABOUT UZUMAKI?!" escape his mouth, startling all of the students in the class. Without warning, a book collided with the back of his head.

Turning around with a feral look on his face, Kiba stared at the person he thought threw the book but when the boy pointed behind him, Kiba looked up and his face took on a darker look. Sitting there with a huge smile on her face was Yamanaka Ino, her smile growing wider as she stared back at his enraged face.

* * *

**_Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji_**

Shikamaru kept his arms crossed as he leaned on the wall behind him with an annoyed scowl on his face. "What's taking them so long?" Shikamaru asked in boredom as he watched his friend pacing back and forth nervously.

It's been ten minutes since they bought the unconscious Uzumaki into the nurse's office and she told them to wait in the hallway until one of them came out and yet he and Chōji have been sitting here since then and they haven't heard a word from either of them. Chōji sighed and sat down on the chair that was placed next to the nurse's office doors across from Shikamaru and asked "How long are they going to be in there?" Shikamaru shrugged as a faint sound of footsteps assaulted his ears_._

_'Someone's coming,'_ Shikamaru thought to himself as the sound of footsteps got louder and louder. From what he could hear, it was two people that were walking his way. Chōji looked down the hall and noticed a girl wearing a red dress, a pair of black skin tight shorts, blue shinobi sandals and a hiate-ite carrying a few scrolls in her arms but what Chōji noticed the most was her pink hair.

Her hair was so bright; it blinded him even from a far distance. There was no doubt that he knew who the girl was. "Shikamaru, Sakura-chan is here," Chōji announced with a light smile on his face.

He would never tell Ino this but Sakura was one of his closest friends outside of the academy along with Shikamaru and Ino and he still was, despite the bad blood she and Sakura had due to their crush on the loner, Uchiha Sasuke.

Shikamaru on the other hand simply nodded at the announcement Chōji gave. Haruno was the least troublesome female on his list of troublesome women next to Hinata due to the fact that when he said she was troublesome, she would never try and hurt him, unlike his mother or Ino.

Maybe it's because she knew she had no right hurting him or maybe because she was saving her wraith for Ino and Naruto just in case they said the wrong thing. Either way, she was the least troublesome so while he wasn't her friend, he was friendly towards her. In his own special way of course.

Chōji's smile turned into a frown when he saw the person that Sakura was standing next to. Sakura was standing next to a boy with onyx hair, black eyes, a blue shirt with a red and white fan on the back of his shirt, a pair of white shorts, blue and white armbands on each arm, black shinobi sandals and a hiate-ite tied around his forehead.

"And so is 'the great' Uchiha Sasuke," Chōji said, his frown deepening when he saw the Uchiha place another scroll on her already large stack of scrolls.

Shikamaru watched as Sakura and Sasuke made their way down the hall and mumbled out "Troublesome…" Before the two stopped in between the two best friends, Sakura smiling happily while Sasuke looked at them with a grumpy look on his face.

"Hi Nara-san, Chōji-kun," Sakura said with a smile towards the two boys.

Shikamaru looked at her with a nonchalant look on his face and mumbled "Hey Haruno-san," Chōji smiled at the pink haired kunoichi and replied back with a "Hey Sakura-chan, how are things?" Sakura shrugged while jumbling her scrolls in her arms, staring at the husky boy with a smile on her face. "Everything's great Chō-kun," She replied, her smile seemingly growing.

Chōji averted his eyes and looked down at the ground with a light blush spreading across his red spiraled cheeks. Shikamaru noticed his friend's strange behavior but said nothing about it. Instead, he turned his attention on Sakura and asked "I see you're here with the Uchiha, what's up with that?"

Sasuke's right eye twitched in annoyance at the fact that he asked Sakura this while he was standing right there. It was like the Nara didn't even know he was right there.

Sakura stared at the bored boy next to her and smiled politely at the pineapple haired boy, sporting a faint blush on her face and answered "Sasuke-kun asked me to walk with him to the academy today…"

The truth was that during her trek to the academy, Sakura saw Sasuke walking with a lot of books in his hands and she "innocently" bumped into him, knocking all of his books down to the ground.

She offered to carry his books to school to make up for knocking them all down from his arms and he accepted it with a frown on his face. The same frown was still on his face as he stood there next to the gushing girl.

Sasuke decided to make his presence known and asked "What are you two idiots doing out here?" Shikamaru with his scowl still present on his face replied "Hoping to avoid someone like you but it seems to me that we failed in that."

Before anyone could get another word out of their moth, they heard banging coming from behind the nurse's door, along with a shout of "Come on Kagome-san, I said I'm fine!" Shikamaru and Chōji shared smiled between each other, realizing that their friend had finally woken up from his fifteen minute nap. Sakura let a soft sigh escape her lips, recognizing the voice behind the door while Sasuke stared at the door in annoyance.

He too seemed to recognize the voice of the boy inside of the room but he prided himself for not tolerating the idiotic blond haired troublemaker. "Only Naruto…." Sakura mumbled with a huge sweat drop forming on her forehead as sounds of a struggle continued to erupt from behind the door for a few more seconds before a loud female voice shouted "Fine! You can leave, you brat!"

And with that, the door busted wide open, revealing the annoyed but smiling face of Uzumaki Naruto, his head and chin wrapped in medical wrap. He turned around and noticed that the nurse was standing in the middle of the wrecked room, with all kinds of medical equipment scattered around the place with an annoyed look on her face.

Naruto scratched the back of his head with a huge grin on his face he said "Sorry Kagome-san, but you know I don't like staying in there for a long time."

Kagome crossed her arms in annoyance but couldn't help smile at the young boy as she replied "I know Naruto, Just try not to show up here again."

She knew from the moment she finished her sentence that it would fall on deaf ears and he would show up again with a brand new injury just like always but at least this would be the very last time he would show up at her office and that made her smile.

Naruto offered to help straighten everything up for her to make up for destroying it in the first place but Kagome waved off the offer, stating that she would just ask one of the janitors to help her take care of it.

Naruto nodded as he closed the door to leave her alone but that grin on his face completely disappeared when he faced the annoyed faces of his friends, his crush and his rival. "Hey Shikamaru, Chōji, You guys didn't have to wait for me" Naruto said as he glanced at his two friends.

Shikamaru shrugged while Chōji smiled and replied "No worries Naruto, we kinda wanted too anyways." Chōji didn't have to mention that Ino wanted some dirt about Naruto and Hinata but he also wanted to talk to the blond haired shinobi. They haven't talked to Naruto since their pranking days and truthfully, he missed hanging out with Naruto and he knew that Shikamaru did too, even if he didn't want to admit it.

Sasuke looked at the blond boy and asked with a mocking smirk "Oi dope, what the hell are you doing here anyways? Didn't you fail the exams yesterday?" Even though Sakura didn't say anything yet, she was wondering the exact same thing. Naruto smiled proudly and pointed at is forehead and replied "Look at my forehead and tell me that I failed the exams."

Naruto didn't realize yet that his hiate-ite wasn't on his forehead like it was earlier when he was on the roof with Hinata and the Ino-Shika-Cho gang and Shikamaru and Chōji hadn't noticed it until they looked at his forehead.

"Naruto, your hiate-ite is gone."

Naruto stared at Chōji in confusion until Chōji pointed at his forehead. Naruto touched his forehead and only felt the wrapping around his forehead and said "Damn it!"

Sasuke looked at the boy with a cruel smirk and said "I rest my case, come on Sakura, let's leave the wanna-be and his loser friends alone." Sasuke crossed his arms and walked off with a victorious look on his face.

Sakura gave the three boys an apologetic look and ran off after her crush, leaving the humiliated Naruto and the annoyed duo alone. "Aw man. Not only does Sasuke humiliate me and I can't think of nothing good to say, He does it in front of Sakura-chan. I can't believe it!" Naruto shouts out sadly, holding his head as if he had a headache.

Shikamaru nodded his head at Naruto but then turned to Chōji, who had a similar look on his face and he realized that Naruto wasn't the only one that felt humiliated. Not at how the Uchiha did it, but who he did it in front of. Shikamaru knew that his best friend also had a crush on the pink haired Haruno but was too shy to admit it to not only her, but to himself as well.

A few seconds later, the nurse's door open and there stood Kagome with a blue cloth in her hand. Naruto looked enraged but before he could start yelling, Kagome said "Naruto, I forgot to hand this to you," Kagome said with a sheepish grin on her face.

Naruto wanted to yell at her for just finding it now but instead, he showed some restraint and grabbed the hiate-ite from out of her hands and mumbled out a "Thank you," from his mouth before he turned back to his two friends and said "I'm sorry that you had to deal with him while I was in there."

Shikamaru patted his friend's shoulder and told him not to worry about it while Chōji did the same and together, the three started walking down the hall and into the classroom.

* * *

**_Back in the Classroom_**

Shino stared at his friend's direction with a stoic look on his face as he watched Kiba jump out of his seat and onto the desk of the boy behind him and shouted at the blond girl "I knew it was you that threw this damn book, Motor mouth Yamanaka!"

Ino pointed to herself with a "genuine" look of confusion on her face and replied "Me? Why would I throw that book at you Mutt-kun? Kiba's right eyebrow twitched in annoyance when she called him by that name.

Little did Ino know, Kiba's older sister, Inuzuka Hana called him "Mutt-kun" all the time in their household since he was three years old and he would be damned if Ino started calling him that.

Kiba grabbed the book that was thrown at him and shouted "Eat book Yamanaka!" Before he threw the book at her recklessly, not caring who got in its way. Ino watched the book come at her and with a grin; she simply tilted her head to the side and let the book sail behind her, forgetting that someone was sitting directly behind her.

The poor boy never saw the book coming because the minute he looked up, the book hit him dead in the middle of the eyes. Cries of "Shinji-kun!" rang out in the room as multiple people rushed to help the downed young man.

Ino grabbed another book and tossed it at Kiba but when she saw that Sasuke and Sakura were about to sit down, the book hit Sasuke in the side of the face, knocking him out before he even hit the ground.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura and Ino shouted in unison as Kiba readied another book and tossed it at the worried Yamanaka and this time, the book met its target, nailing Ino in the stomach.

Kiba grinned and victoriously shouted "Take that you big headed blond!" But little did he know, throwing the book at Yamanaka had started a book war in the class and he was the third casualty of that war.

Naruto, Shikamaru and Chōji entered the room a few minutes later and the three had to duck to avoid being creamed by a huge dictionary that was thrown their way. The trio looked around and noticed through the chaos that Hinata, Shino and Kiba were hiding underneath their desks across the room so with a stealth, the three crawled on the ground to reach them.

But when they were almost the spot that Hinata and Shino were, a boy had spotted them and threw the at the most visible thing in the room which was Naruto's clothes and with a scream, the book collided with Naruto's head, knocking him out mid crawl.

Shikamaru and Chōji watched in horror as the Uzumaki's still body was still being assaulted by books but they weren't the only ones that were watching. Hinata saw the books hurting her best friend and something snapped inside of her.

With a mighty scream which startled and scared Shino out of his mind, she grabbed a few books that was sitting nearby and jumped from out her hiding spot and threw them at everyone that was still tossing books at random directions or at Naruto. '_She has good aim…despite her anger…'_ Shikamaru noted humorlessly as he watched the books she threw collided with mostly all of the people that were still standing and tossing books.

She grabbed the unconscious boy and ordered Shikamaru and Chōji to follow her without even stuttering once, surprising the two boys greatly. She hoisted Naruto up and put his right arm over her shoulder and crawled back to her hiding spot where she saw Shino, who had taken this time to gather the now awakened Inuzuka as well as the unconscious bodies of Haruno and Yamanaka.

Hinata knew that Shino had forgotten Sasuke's body but to be honest, he didn't care much about the Uchiha's wellbeing. "Nice to see you Hinata-san, Nara-san, Akimichi-san," Shino said as he helped the small Hyūga pulled the heavier than anticipated Naruto into their makeshift hiding place.

"Nice to see you too, Aburame-san," Chōji said with a smile as he in between Shikamaru and Shino in their hiding spot. Just then, they could hear tons of books hitting their makeshift hiding spot and they knew that some of the kids had re-awaken from their short slumber.

Kiba groaned in annoyance as he handed Shino, Chōji and Shikamaru a book as well as picking up a book of his own and shouted "We have to keep them from destroying our fort!" Hinata laid Naruto next to the unconscious Sakura and Ino and picked up a book of her own and without a word, she stood up and tossed the book at a random student and quickly ducked back down, narrowly avoiding a book hitting her in the face.

"Man I hope someone older comes and stops this before we die.." Shikamaru muttered softly after sitting back down in the fort, knowing that the book he had thrown missed his target. As if Kami took pity on his soul, The wounded chūnin known as Umino Iruka was limping down the hall towards the classroom, accompanied by his fiancée, the snake mistress of Kohona, Mitarashi Anko.

The chūnin gave the Tokubetsu jōnin a kind smile and assured her that he would be fine but one look on her gentle, psychotic face told him that she was still worried about him. Iruka shook his head gently at her worry but before he could say anything to sooth his fiancée's worry, a pretty large book came sailing out of the room, slamming into the wall across from the classroom.

Iruka and Anko looked at each other and then rushed (in Iruka's condition, He limped) to the classroom. When the two got to the room, the were greeted with the site of wounded shinobi and kunoichi hopefuls, each moaning and groaning in pure, unfiltered pain and suffering, all of them showing their wounds from the event.

Iruka then witnessed two of his students (Namely the boy named Shinji who got nailed by Kiba and Kiba himself) Still throwing books at each other in rapid succession, not knowing that their sensei had finally arrived.

Kiba, ignoring the looks of fear on the faces of his friends (and Rival), grabbed the final book that was nearby and prepared to throw it at the boy above him but when Iruka shouted "THAT IS ENOUGH!" with his evil "Big head Jutsu", Kiba got startled and tossed the book at Iruka's direction.

Without batting an eye, Iruka caught the book in mid-air when it was inches from his face and slowly moved it away, revealing an evil glare on his face and tossed the book on the now empty bookshelf and with a calm, control, and emotionless voice, He asked "How in the hell did this happen?"

* * *

**_One explanation later_**

With all of the students awaken, patched up and lined up as if they were at the wrong end of the shooting gallery, Iruka and Anko stood in front of them, both wearing an emotionless mask on their faces. Iruka stared at the nervous children in front of him and calmly, as if he rehearsed this, ordered Ino and Kiba in front of him.

_"Thanks a lot motor mouth…"_ Kiba whispered to Ino with a nervous scowl placed on his face, very afraid of facing his sensei when he was angry.

Ino let a small nervous smile form on her face and replied in a whisper _"It was worth it,"_ while also sharing Kiba's fear of her sensei at the moment.

Naruto on the other hand was extremely happy at this turn of events. Not only was he saved by Hinata (Chōji filled him in on what happened while he was unconscious) He wasn't at the end of Iruka's "Stare of death" for the first time in his life while Kiba and Ino was. Life would be good….If he wasn't injured.

Iruka looked his two students in the eyes and took a deep breath and slowly said "I could force you two to remain here at the academy" Kiba and Ino's eyes widened in surprise and fear, praying that he wouldn't but then he said "But that would be punishing me instead of you two so I won't do that" Ino and Kiba both let out a breath that they didn't realize they were holding but their sensei wasn't done yet.

"Instead, You two will clean every inch of this classroom and when you are done, I want you both to apologize to not only all of the students here…But to each other as well and not only that, I want you two to give each other a hug and a kiss on the cheek."

Now, Ino and Kiba could handle cleaning up the classroom and apologizing to the others but to not only apologize to each but to hug and kiss each other? This was bull and they let their sensei know this in a passionate debate (more like yelling and screaming along with hair pulling on Iruka's side) but Iruka had none of it and told them it was either that or he could keep them here, despite the torture it would be having them both here.

The two students gave their sensei one last glare before looking at each other and turning away with an indignant grunt. After watching Kiba and Ino clean the room they were in as well as apologizing to all of them, Kiba and Ino stared at each other with intense glares on their faces.

"Well?" Iruka asked with a grin on his face as the two continued their stare down. Kiba decided to swallow his pride and took a step towards Ino and gave her an awkward hug which she returned just as awkwardly and swallowing her pride like Kiba had moments ago, she gave the feral looking boy a small peck on the cheek in which he returned gently and immediately after that, the two separated from each other, wiping their mouths and gagging as if they caught something from each other.

Not only from their forced show of affection but from the laughter, cat calls and whistles that came from their classmates/tormentors. Iruka chuckled with a small grin on his face; shaking his head softly at this spectacle and with a laugh, he said "Now that we are done laughing at Inuzuka-san and Yamanaka-san expense, it's time we get down to business. It's now time to announce the team formations."

And with that, all of the students stopped their teasing of the two students and looked at their sensei. Hinata, who had been giggling softly in between Naruto and Shino stopped giggling when she heard Iruka's announcement and felt the deep dread in form in her heart. It was moment of truth time.

Will she and Naruto be torn apart or will they be able to stay together? Hinata didn't know this but Naruto had the same dread in his heart as well. He had been thinking about this while he was walking in the hall with Shikamaru and Chōji and even during the book war, All he had been thinking about was if he and Hinata would be on the same team together and he knew that if they weren't on the same team, there might be a chance that they won't see each other anymore after this and he didn't want that to happen. Not after they finally found each other.

Naruto knew he was nervous about the results but what he didn't know was that he was shaking so hard, he looked like a leaf in a wild wind. The only person that was more nervous than him was. She was so nervous that she was on the edge of having a heart attack.

Iruka, not knowing the thoughts and feelings of his two students, grabbed the list with the names of all of his students and their teams and began to list of the teams. From team one to team six, Iruka named the three students that would be in team together, not knowing that each team he named, the more Naruto and Hinata got nervous.

"Now for team seven. Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Ikari Shinji, You sensei will be Ha-" Iruka didn't even get a chance to finish due to the loud scream of joy from Sakura and the loud scream of anger from Ino.

Shikamaru noticed that Chōji's shoulders seem to slump at Sakura's excitement and could only place his hand on his friend's shoulder to help him cheer up but he seemed to notice that Naruto seemed to not hear what team Sakura was on.

He looked like his mind was on something else. _'Probably worried about not being on Hinata's team,'_ Shikamaru summarized in his mind as he faintly heard his sensei grumble "Like I was saying, Team seven's sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

He then found his voice and continued on with the next team. "Hyūga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba. You three are team eight and your sensei is Yūhi Kurenai."

And with that announcement, Hinata took a step back and with a look of utter depression on her face, Hinata felt herself falling to the ground like a ton of bricks but right before she blacked out, she could hear her name being shouted out in surprise and worry but the last thing she saw before darkness taking over her was the scared eyes of her best friend.

* * *

Rain: And that is where I'll end it for now. The next chapter will be along soon, I want to stay ahead of the curve and prepare for Team Zero's first mission so until then...

Mario: See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Rain: Hey everyone, the kid is back in town. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. It means a lot...Now let us begin!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of team Zero_**

**_Chapter Three: Anger born of worry_**

Asuma and Kurenai were lying on the ground beneath a tree at the park, embracing each other and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. Asuma wrapped his right arm around Kurenai's petite waist and bought her closer to him and smiled softly when Kurenai leaned her head into his chest, a soft smile forming on her elegant face.

Today was a very special day for both of them. Not only was today the day that they would be leading the very first seven man team together, It was their one year anniversary.

The two knew that they should be heading to the academy to meet their joint team but they decided to wait a while. They knew that once they get their team, they wouldn't have a moment of peace so they really wanted to spend their last moments together before they both will have their hands full with seven hormonal teenagers. But as long as they were together, that didn't matter. "So, how do you think they will take the news?" Kurenai asked, referring to their future team.

* * *

**_The Academy_**

Naruto felt an uncharacteristic scowl form his lips as he held the unconscious Hinata in his arms, shocking everyone due to the fact they had never seen him form another look other than his happy face. Chōji, Ino and Shino simply watched on with sympathetic (as sympathetic as Shino can look with his clothes) on their faces while Shikamaru and Kiba tried to calm the blond down.

* * *

**_Yūhi Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma_**

Asuma looked down at the woman lying on his chest and replied with a light shrug of his shoulders "I'm sure they'll be happy about it." Kurenai snuggled into his chest, letting out a sigh of content.

* * *

**_Back at the academy_**

"Are you kidding me?!" Naruto shouted with an angry tone in his voice. He was already upset about Hinata not being on his team but after Iruka named everyone off on his list, he told Naruto that since he was the odd man out in the class, he would have to be held back as a shinobi until either someone pulls out of their team or wait until next year.

* * *

**_Yūhi Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma_**

"I'm sure Hinata will be ecstatic" Kurenai said, feeling Asuma wrapping his other arm around her softly. Since Kurenai had known Hinata back when her mother was alive, she had always known about the shy Hyūga's crush on the blond haired troublemaker and hoped that this would kick start something between the two.

* * *

**_The Academy_**

"I-It's not fair!" Hinata screamed out sadly as she continued to lay in the arms of her best friend and secret crush. She had woken up just in time to hear Iruka tell Naruto that he was forced to wait until next year when a team should be ready or if Someone were to pull out from their current team and she was already upset about the fact Naruto wasn't on her team so when she heard this, she felt even worse.

"N-Naruto-kun worked h-hard to become an s-shinobi! Y-You can't hold h-him back!" Iruka was now seriously confused. Since when did Hinata talk to him like that? Hell, since when did Hinata yell? He was missing something but what?

He got his answer a few seconds later when Naruto said, obviously trying not to let any tears fall from his eyes but then his face morphed into a sad version of his foxy smile and said with fake happiness in his voice "D-Don't worry Hinata-chan, I-I can wait a-another year…I…Better g-go…You guys have to meet y-your teachers…"

Hinata didn't get a chance to respond because the moment Naruto sat her down on the ground, he silently rushed out of the room, leaving her and everyone to stare.

Hinata didn't even realize what had happened until she saw a flash of orange walking out of the door but she when she realized that Naruto had left the room, a choked sob escaped her lips as tears slowly started falling from her eyes. Sasuke couldn't keep the scowl off of his face as he watched Hinata cry over the blond haired idiot he knows as Uzumaki Naruto.

Everyone knew that Sakura and Ino liked him a lot but everyone also knew that he didn't like them, In fact, he couldn't stand them. While Sakura and Ino are very cute in his eyes, they were also very perky, loud and obnoxious, plus the two weren't from a clan that had prestige or anything so they were beneath him in every single way.

He preferred girls who had prestige. Girls who were submissive, cute and knew their place….Like Hinata. No one knew it but he had a major crush on the shy Hyūga and he would do anything in his power to make her his and only his. He knew that the only person in his way was the blond haired fool known as Uzumaki Naruto and it annoyed him to no end that someone as perfect as Hinata was pining for the fool.

Sasuke put on his mask of uncaring, covering up his look of anger and envy of his blond haired rival but what he didn't know was that Shino had seen the anger and envy that was on his face and felt his eyes glance at Hinata's shaking form below him. Shino may have not cared for Hinata in that sense but he did care about her as a younger sister and seeing Sasuke look at her like that made him believe that the Uchiha was a danger to not only her relationship to Naruto but to his little "sister" friend as well.

Without any warning, Hinata stood up and without a word, ran out of the classroom doors to catch up to her upset friend, knowing that she was going to get an earful from both Ino and Kiba when she returned…If she returned. All was quiet in the classroom for a few seconds before fierce whispers about Hinata and Naruto's relationship erupted and at that moment.

A few moments later, an ANBU appeared in the room, stopping all the chatter from the kids. "Umino-san, I have something from Hokage-sama, it's about the team assignment…"

Iruka, at that moment, realized that maybe he should've stayed home like Anko wanted him too.

* * *

**_Yūhi Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma_**

"I'm sure she will, right Kure?" A voice that was **not** Asuma's said, startling the lovers out of their small talk. With a glare, the two looked above them and noticed their friend, Hatake Kakashi standing in the tree above them, holding his favorite orange book in his hand.

At the moment, the two separated like the other was on fire and quickly stood up off the ground, dusting themselves off, blushing faintly at the fact that they were caught. It wasn't that they were ashamed of their relationship, far from it but they didn't want their friends/comrades to find out. Not only because of their endless teasing (Especially from Anko and Kakashi) but because they liked their private life just that.

Private.

"What are you doing here, Hatake?" The two asked in stoically in unison, every trace of their embarrassment gone from their faces.

Kakashi looked down at the couple and shrugged with a nonchalant look in his eye and replied "Well, during my walk down the road of life, I got thirsty and took the detour of fate and saw you two snuggling under the tree."

At the mention of their earlier snuggling, the faint blush returned to both of their faces but it was gone once again when Asuma asked "The truth?" Kakashi frowned at this. As much as Asuma would hate being compared to his father, the Sandaime, he sure acted like him sometimes.

"Well, I figured that since all three of us are two hours late to gather our respective teams, we should go together."

Asuma and Kurenai's attention was fully on Kakashi now.

They are two hours late to meet their team? They knew they were milking the time to be alone together but two hours late was too much. But despite the lateness factor, they were glad to spend so much time with each other.

The two looked at each then back at the shinobi that rivaled the Nara clan in laziness and said "Sure," Before rushing off to the academy, two of them hoping that their students didn't leave and one of them hoping that his students **did**.

* * *

**_The Academy_**

When the three Jōnins arrived at the academy, they were quietly walking down the halls until they heard the voices of their respective teams talking about something and from their tone, they were worried about something. The three Jōnin looked at each other and with a nod; Kurenai produced a genjutsu to make them 'Invisible" to the naked eye as well as hide their scents so they could hear what their students were talking about inside of the classroom.

"I say we should go out and look for them," Kiba said with a frown on his face. Ever since Naruto and then Hinata left the room, Iruka and his creepy fiancée had been looking for them but neither had come back and it was annoying the feral boy to no end.

He felt that if those two couldn't find them, then they could. Ino on the other hand simply smacked the feral boy upside the head and said "If Iruka-sensei and Mitarashi-san haven't found them yet then how can we, mere Genin hope to find them?" Now the three Jōnins were concerned.

Who were the kids talking about?

Sakura, being the smartest of the class smiled at her rival in love and said "Simple Ino-pig, we have two people from two clans that excel in scouting. Kiba-san is an Inuzuka, right?" At Kiba's nod, the green eyed girl smiled lightly at this and continued.

"I read that the Inuzuka clan's sense of smell is perfect. I think that if they can find something with Naruto-san's and Hinata-san's scent, we can find them," Sakura smiled as she finished with her idea. Kiba, ignoring Ino's mock gagging behind him puffed out his chest in pride at Sakura's complement of one his clan's main ability.

"And as for Shino-san, His Kikai bugs can easily find their chakra signatures as well as their scent so we can find them," Sakura finished with a nod towards the stoic Aburame.

Shino adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of all of his comrades around him and said "While your hypothesis is good Sakura-san, we have no need to find Hinata-san."

The rest of the group looked at Shino but Sakura asked "And why not? Don't you care about her?" Shino simply slipped his hands into his pockets and with a tone of annoyance, he responded "Because I have one of my Kikai with her. I know exactly where she is."

Shino was just about to tell them where she was when he felt the Kikai that was with her suddenly disappear in thin air. "It seems that I was incorrect in my earlier assessment."

Chōji, who would normally be eating his chips looked at the stoic Aburame and asked "What do you mean?"

Shino merely turned his head at Chōji's direction and answered "The Kikai that was with Hinata-san has disappeared. I do not know where she is now."

The group of Shinobi and Kunoichi sighed.

Their only hope in finding their friends was dashed once again. Ino noticed that Shikamaru was in his thinking pose, his face etched in concentration with his eyes closed, causing Sakura to tilt her head at him in confusion. "Shikamaru-san? What are you doing?"

"He's thinking," Ino said with a small smirk. When Shikamaru was forced to use that pose, she knew good things would happen. When the lazy Nara opened his eyes; Ino stated with a small grin "You have a plan."

Shikamaru stayed silent for a few moments and replied "I agree with Kiba and Sakura, We should go find them."

Kiba whooped in happiness and high-fived the pink haired girl while Ino had a look of betrayal on her face. How could her best friend side with not only her rival in love, but her rival in life like that without giving any thoughts of her feelings? "Alright, Here's the plan," Shikamaru announced, motioning the group to get in a circle around his kneeling form.

"Chōji, Sakura-san, you two will go search downtown with Kiba-san leading you. Shino-san, you, me and Ino search at the center of Kohona," Chōji stared at his friend and then at Sakura and gave him a kind smile which he returned while also trying to hide the blush on his face by trying to shrink into his white scarf.

Sakura noticed that her friend was getting red in the face and wondered if he was getting sick. She sure hoped not because she knows how Chōji gets when he's sick and she's always hated seeing him like that.

She then realized something.

Sasuke and her teammate Shinji wasn't in the circle with them. She turned around and noticed that the two of them were staring out of the window, Sasuke with his uncaring look on his face and Shinji with a nervous look on his face.

Sakura then turned her attention on Shikamaru and asked "What about Sasuke-kun and Shinji-san? Shouldn't they come with us?" Shikamaru stared at the two boys in question and frowned.

He knew that Shinji was spineless and would go with whatever he said so he wasn't the problem.

The problem went by the name Uchiha Sasuke. He knew that no matter what he said or did, Sasuke would never cooperate with him and he knew that it would be a lost cause unless he could trick the Uchiha and he knew how.

Get him where it matters.

"I don't know Sakura, I don't think he handle doing something like that," Sasuke's eyes narrowed when he heard what Shikamaru had said about him.

"What did you say Nara?" Sasuke asked as he turned around from the window to face the lazy shinobi. His face filled with annoyance and anger as he stared the boy down but Shikamaru didn't look afraid of the boy, he just look the same as he always did.

"You can't handle doing this. You couldn't help anybody even if your own life depended on it." Shikamaru replied in his famous bored tone, knowing that the boy was going to get angry and he wasn't disappointed.

Sasuke scowled at the boy, wishing he was able to kill the Nara just by looking at him. Sasuke knew full damn well that he could do anything because he was an Uchiha. The elite clan of all of Kohona and to have this…no name try and say he couldn't do something had pissed him off to no end.

Well Uchiha Sasuke would prove him wrong. No matter how demeaning the task was. "Looks like your wrong then Nara because I'm ready for anything you can dish out," Sasuke said as he glared at Shikamaru once more just for saying something so blasphemous in his presence.

"Alright then Sasuke, You can take Shinji and search down south."

Sasuke's right eyebrow rose slightly and he asked "Search down south for what?" When he got his answer, He swore that this was the worse joke of his life but when Shikamaru said it was no joke and once again insulted Sasuke; The Uchiha simply grunted and said he would help anyways.

But not to find Naruto.

No, this search will be for the Hyūga girl.

After going over the plan once more, All of the kids rushed out of the classroom to complete their "mission" and once the classroom and the hallway was clear, Kurenai canceled the Jutsu, revealing herself as well as Kakashi and Asuma as well.

"Well, Iruka-san seemed to screw things up…" Asuma muttered to himself, his urge to take a long drag from his cigarette flaring up like it always did when things got tough.

Kurenai turned around to face her masked friend and simply shook her head softly. Asuma could see that she was worried not just for Hinata but for Naruto as well and despite being in front of Kakashi, he walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her gently, whispering comforting words in her ears.

Normally Kakashi would file this away under blackmail material but the wheels in his head were turning at a fierce speed. He then felt a smirk form on his face and said "….Perhaps we can use this mistake to our advantage" Asuma, as well as Kurenai turned to him and saw the smirk on his face and asked "How?"

* * *

**_Thirty Minutes later_**

After going over his plan, Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma had split up to see how their respective teams would work together to find their missing comrades.

Asuma had volunteered to go watch the team of Nara Shikamaru, Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino while Kurenai decided to go after the team of Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura (She would take notes for Kakashi on her teamwork) and Akimichi Chōji, leaving Kakashi to watch Uchiha Sasuke and Ikari Shinji.

Before they split however, they made it a point to find Asuma and Kurenai's students so Kakashi's lazy plan could work so with speed that they would normally use for A-rank missions, they searched the village until they found the upset Uzumaki going up to the Hokage monument at a slow, sad pace while the equally upset Hyūga was walking around the village in a desperate search to find the blond haired shinobi.

He watched as she stopped in front of Naruto's favorite food stand known as "Ichikaru's" to take a breather before she continue on in her search.

"Damn…" Kakashi muttered with a scowl beneath a mask.

He had hoped that the two were together so it could be easier for the teams to find them but that wasn't the case it appears. Without consulting his friends and fellow shinobi, Kakashi appeared in directly in front of the upset Hyūga, startling her so greatly, that she had fallen backwards on to the ground, hurting her butt in the process.

"Hello there, I am Hatake Kakashi, You are Hyūga Hinata I presume."

Hinata stared at the masked Shinobi in front of her, a small look of awe on her pale, tear streaked face. She had heard from various shinobi as well as her fellow clansman that Hatake Kakashi was a legendary Shinobi of Kohonagakure no Sato.

She's heard various stories about his exploits from every mission he had been in as well as his involvement in the third Shinobi war and she admired him just as much as she did the "Crimson Illusionist" Yūhi Kurenai but her look of admire had died as Naruto's sad face flashed through her mind.

Abandoning her awe, the indigo haired Kunoichi stood up off of the ground and walked past the lazy shinobi; not even bothering to say a word, needing to find Naruto. Kakashi watched as she walked off and muttered _"That child is determined. I'll give her that."_

Before catching up to her and asking "So, What's the Hyūga heiress doing out here all by herself?" Hinata ignored him more as her frantic mantra of "Naruto-kun" ran through her mind, blocking out everything else except to find him.

She had actually caught up to the blond haired boy during her start of this search but she had lost him in the crowd during the mid-day rush and her mood was already bad but now it was even worse now because the shinobi known as Kakashi was hindering her search to find him.

With fire blazing in her eyes, She looked at the Shinobi that was trying and failing to talk to her and without stuttering once, she shouted "I don't h-have time for small talk. I-I need to find Naruto-k-kun and you're slowing m-me down s-so if you don't mind, p-please leave me a-alone."

Kakashi shook his head and watched as she stomped off ahead of him to continue her search and decided that he should just stop trying to be polite and cut to the chase.

"Look, I know where Naruto is!" Kakashi shouted for her to hear and it seemed to work because Hinata suddenly stopped mid step, not really hearing what he had said before she heard her best friend's name.

"W-What did you s-say?" Kakashi took his time in getting to her and when he was at her side, he turned so that he was in front of her and repeated what he had just told her with his "eye" smile. Hinata stared at him for a few moments, as if she didn't believe him and truthfully, she didn't.

Sure, he was one of the greatest Shinobi of all of Kohona but she didn't know him personally and for him to randomly pop up and say that he knew where her Naruto-kun was really made her weary of him but being a Hyūga, she was able to detect any deception in not only his words, but his body movements but when she didn't hear or see anything deception, She allowed herself to lower her guard and ask "R-Really?"

Kakashi gave her another "eye" smile and nodded. Hinata stared at him for another few seconds before simply asking "Where?" Kakashi turned her body by her shoulders, ignoring the very faint blush on the shy Hyūga's face and pointed at the Hokage monument, specifically pointing at the stone head of his sensei, Namikaze Minato aka the Yondaime Hokage.

"That is where you will find him. He always sits up there when he's feeling down," Kakashi explained to her while glancing at her face from the corner of his eyes but was surprised when she was looking at him the same way. "And h-how do you k-know this?" Hinata asked with a rare tone of accusation in her voice.

Kakashi knew at this point that he needed to choose his words carefully in order not to spill much to her. He knew that like the Nara's, the Hyūga's were very keen in picking up every little detail and if he let too much slip, there was no doubt that she would find out the blond boy's secret and he wouldn't want that…

"Since he would get in trouble a lot as a kid and even now, I would be assigned by the Sandaime to watch over him in case he got into more trouble" While that wasn't the whole truth, Hinata looked like she had bought it and she would have…If she didn't notice that he his body language had changed very subtly.

Hinata knew that he was telling her only half of the truth but at this moment, all she wanted was to find her Naruto-kun, she would deal with this problem when she got back to it. Hinata turned her attention on the man's face and said "Thank y-you," Before she rushed off in the direction of the Hokage monument, swearing that if he was lying to her, she would utterly destroy him, obviously.

Asuma and Kurenai landed behind their comrade a few minutes after Hinata's form disappeared in the crowd ahead and with a sigh, Asuma said "This plan better work Kakashi…" And with that, Kurenai and Asuma vanished in a swirl of leaves to find their respective teams.

Kakashi put his hand over his face and let out a sigh before vanishing as well, hoping that his plan would work too.

* * *

**_With Ino, Shikamaru and Shino_**

"For the last time Shikamaru, I don't like him!" Ino screamed at the top of her lungs as she followed the lazy shadow user and the mysterious bug user towards the center of Kohona. Shikamaru, in a rare playful mood, was just teasing her about her little kiss with the feral member of their search team and Ino was absolutely fed up with it.

It was bad enough that Sakura was Sasuke's teammate but to have someone keep throwing that embarrassing moment between her and her RIL (rival in life) was more than she could take but as much as she would like to hit her best friend, She also knew that Shikamaru was only saying that because he was trying to keep the mood light with his banter so they wouldn't get frustrated…plus, having Shino between them was good too.

"I'm not saying you like him, I'm just saying you liked the kiss," Shikamaru lazily pointed out as he continued to look for any clues Shino might have possibly missed while he was scouting ahead.

Shino hadn't said a word since he had started this search due to the strain of having half of his Kikai out of his body, searching all around them for any clue that will lead him to his two friends and so far, that search was failing miserably and his normally nerves of steel were being rusted from the inside and he had to use all of his power not to scream at the Yamanaka and Nara to shut up so he could focus in peace and like his search for clues, he was failing in that as well.

"Can you two please keep yourselves at peace until this search is over?" Shino had wanted to say but instead, he said "Would you two please shut up so I can do this?!" Shikamaru and Ino's heads snapped up at the sudden shout that escaped Shino's mouth.

That was the first time they had heard any type of emotion from him since their entire time in the academy but they wished that he had expressed any other emotion other than anger because truth be told, Ino was absolutely terrified of a mad Shino now.

After a few moments of silence, one of Shino's Kikai had picked up Hinata's scent that was near the ramen stand known as "Ichikaru's" from how warm it was, It seems like they had just missed her but this was good because they had a scent now and it was only a matter of time before they found her and then, they would find Naruto as well.

* * *

**_With Kiba, Chōji and Sakura_**

"Man, this is so annoying!" Kiba shouted as he crossed his arms, an ever growing scowl on his face. Since they had left the academy, Kiba has been searching for a fresh scent of Uzumaki's and so far, every scent that _seemed_ to be fresh turned out to be nothing more than a dead end and it really pissed the feral boy off.

Behind him, Chōji and Sakura were watching with amused looks on their faces as they watched Kiba rant about this. Chōji heard the soft giggle escape Sakura's lips and glanced at her smiling face and felt his face heat up. How he wished he could make her smile like that but before he could anything, He saw Sakura looking at him, her smile falling a little when she saw his face.

_'This is the second time I've seen his face heat up like that, he must really be sick…'_ Sakura thought to herself as her thoughts about her closest friend being sick worrying her greatly. "I think you should turn back and go home, Chōji-kun," Sakura told her friend in concern, her smile completely gone now as she stared at the Akimichi, startling him slightly.

Forgetting about his current mission he had, Chōji turned towards his pink haired crush and asked "Why would you say that?" with a curious look on his face.

Sakura crossed her arms and gave him an accusing stare and answered "Because you look sick."

Chōji was defiantly confused now and his face showed his confusion.

What did she mean that he looked sick?

He didn't have to wait long for an explanation because Sakura noticed his confused face and said "Every time I look at you, your face is incredibly red like a cherry and it looks like you're sick," Despite herself, she giggled a bit at the analogy that she used but Chōji did not look amused.

In fact, he had a look of relief on his face.

He knew that it was bad that she had caught him blushing a few times at her but she had passed it off at him being sick. "It's a little chilly out here but I'm not sick," Chōji said with a small smile on his face as he faked a small shiver, hoping that she had bought it but it looked like she did but before she could respond, Kiba jumped in the air with a "Yahoo!" as Akamaru barked in happiness.

It looked like Kiba had finally caught a warm, fresh scent of Naruto and with a wide grin, Kiba shouted "Come on guys, Lets go find us a baka!" Before darting off with Akamaru. The two friends laughed at their friend and followed the two.

* * *

**_With Shinji and Sasuke_**

No words were spoken between the two teammates as the searched for a clue to find Naruto and Hinata. Thoughts of vengeance and Hinata ran through the head of Sasuke while thoughts of hopelessness and pain ran through the head of Shinji.

Point being, they are being themselves. 'Nuff said.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto_**

With a look of helplessness, Uzumaki Naruto stared out at the village as he sat silently on the stone head of the Yondaime Hokage on the Hokage monument.

He knew that being the container of the Kyūbi no Kitsune was not going to be easy.

Hell, even before he found out about the Kitsune, his life was hard but he had braved through those hardships and he really hoped that one day, his bravery would be rewarded.

He finally thought that his reward was finally given starting from last night when he defeated Mizuki and became an official Shinobi and then he thought it continued when he was finally reunited with his best and first friend, Hyūga Hinata but he should have known that this was too good to be true.

He should have known that things would go wrong once again.

Not only was he not going to be on Hinata-chan's team, he was going to be held back because there were no other teams that would bring him in. When he heard that, it was like everything he did last night was for nothing and that was the thing that really hurt him.

He let a soft sigh escape his lips as he lifted his right knee and laid his right arm on top of it, gazing softly at the village he loves and said "I'll never get a chance to prove myself…" he then let a soft gasp escape his lips as he felt something wet going down his cheek slowly.

He slowly wiped the water off of his cheek and looked at the hand he used to wipe it off.

Was he crying?

Naruto then heard something walking a few feet behind him and turned around with a kunai in his hand only to see the face of a very upset Hyūga Hinata looking back at him.

"Why did you leave?"

* * *

Rain: Well new questions are abound. What will the two teams trekking up the forest of the Hokage monument find in their search? What will Hinata and Naruto talk about? What has Shino on edge and what the hell is Kakashi's plan? Find out next time on...**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

Mario: See you next time


	4. Chapter 4

Rain: I'm back again with a brand spanking new chapter of **_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_** So is everyone ready?

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Four: Rumble in the Monument _**

Looking up at the monument before them, three masked shinobi stood in front of it.

The tallest shinobi had a green mask which had a motif of a dragon on it, green gloves, green boots, a pair of baggy black pants and a black vest over his bare, scarred up chest.

The shinobi beside him had a pink mask that had the motif of a phoenix on it, pink gloves, pink boots, a pair of baggy black plants and a short sleeve black shirt which showed the shape of a modest sized breast but on the left side of her arm laid a faint jagged scar on her left bicep.

And the shinobi standing in the middle of them had a silver mask which had the motif of a tiger, a long sleeved black shirt, baggy black pants, silver gloves and silver boots on the right sleeve, right where the shoulder was on the shirt was the crest of the Hyūga clan on them.

"You know your missions sensei gave us, Use any force necessary to stop the new genins from reaching the top of the monument. I will go there to face off against the two on the top…" The silver masked shinobi said to the two shinobi beside him stoically.

The two shinobi nodded while the green masked one gave him a thumbs up before the three of them split up and dashed away to complete their objectives.

* * *

**_Team Shino _**

"The Hokage monument?"

That was the first thing that came from Shikamaru's mouth as he; Shino and Ino came halting to a stop in front of the very large mountain. "Shino, are you sure this is where Hinata's scent leads?" Shikamaru asked, staring at the stoic Aburame with a well hidden curious look.

Shino stared at the Nara and nodded, stating that his Kikai never lie. Ino stepped forward and turned around to face the two males and said "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" and with that, she turned around and ran towards the dirt road.

"She is very…impulsive…." Shino noted with an impassive look on his face as he and Shikamaru watched the blond haired girl run off. Shikamaru simply shook his head and said "How troublesome" before running off after her with Shino joining him a few moments later.

When they finally caught up to Ino, she was halfway through the forest with a satisfactory grin on her face. She could hear that the two had finally caught up to her and she took this time to turn around and stare at her two companions, running backwards in the process and asking with a teasing tone "What took you guys?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes while muttering _"Troublesome…" _but Shino was silent. This wouldn't be a big deal since he was always quiet but this time he was more alert.

Shikamaru noticed that Shino was alert about something due to his body language and no matter how troublesome he thought it was, he decided to ask "Aburame, What is it?"

Shino turned his head to the left and saw Shikamaru's inquisitive look and said "My Kikai are restless….Something is out here…"

Ino, who had continued running the normal way after nearly tripping on a branch that would have made her fall into the mud, turned around and asked "What's so bad about that?" Shino didn't have a chance to reply to her question due to the multiple whizzing sounds of shurikens rushing at them.

The three wasted no time in taking out a Kunai and deflecting all of the shuriken that came their way. Shino deflected the last Shuriken upwards so it would fly in the air and tossed his kunai towards the direction the batch of shuriken came from then he caught the falling shuriken and spun his body around and flung it after the kunai, knowing that if one of his projectiles missed, the other would hit its target.

Shino then took the time to look at his teammates to see if they came out of this unharmed. He saw that Ino was crouched forward with her hands on her knees, mildly winded after that random assault but she looked like she would be alright while Shikamaru, despite not showing it, was the same as Ino but Shino knew that he would be alright also.

"Does that answer your question, Yamanaka-san?" Shino murmured towards her while straightening himself out, sending his Kikai out to search where the weapons was thrown. He then looked around him and noticed one of the deflected shurikens on the ground and picked it up and examined it closely for a few moments until his eyes brows raised up a fraction.

_'These faint silver markings….' _"We need to keep moving, I have a feeling Uzumaki-san and Hinata-san are in danger…" Shino said, his voice a lot more emotionless than before.

Ino, not really in a mood to talk after that assault nodded and said "Alright" while Shikamaru stared at the Aburame intensely.

While not being a Hyūga, The Nara clan was able to figure out that something was wrong by body movements and certain mannerisms. Not as well as the Hyūga clan can but it was just as good.

From how Shino, the normally stoic boy from the Aburame clan acted from while they were in the academy and before their search, His movements as well as his voice would always remain calm, cool and collected but when he saw that shuriken that the mysterious attacker threw, Shikamaru noticed that his body language went from his normal collected to shocked as well as worried but it was so subtle that Shikamaru almost missed it but when Shino spoke, his voice was octaves lower and even more colder than his normal voice was. Did he know the person that attacked them?

Shikamaru was going to ask him about this but he knew that assuming something so soon was beyond troublesome so he decided that he would hang back and simply take notes of his behavior if they find their attacker. Without a word spoken between them, the three formed a triangle and went on to find their friends, keeping their guard up in case of another attack.

* * *

**_Team Kiba_**

As Shikamaru, Ino and Shino continued on to find their friend Hinata, Kiba, Sakura and Chōji were just arriving at the other end of the monument where they saw the road that lead into the forest that would lead them to their blond haired friend.

Kiba was in front of the two with Akamaru, sniffing out Naruto's still warm trail while Sakura and Chōji stayed behind him, keeping lookout for either Naruto or Hinata but also engaging in light conversation. They were deep inside of the forest when Kiba lifted his right hand up, motioning the two behind him to be quiet for a moment.

When Sakura questioned this, Kiba shook his head and said "There is another scent here."

Chōji and Sakura quickly took out a kunai from their kunai pouch and quickly appeared behind Kiba and Akamaru, their backs towards him and each other. "Do you recognize the scent, Kiba-san?" Kiba shook his head softly, giving Sakura her answer while scanning his eyes at the sounding lush green forest, looking out for any and every small movement around them.

They could feel the soft, gentle wind around them touch their exposed skin as they silently waited for any sign of movement and they didn't have to wait long because when Kiba caught the scent again, it was a lot stronger than before. He could smell the scent all around them but he could not find where it was until he the scent was just above them.

"Scatter!" Kiba shouted before jumping away from his two comrades with Akamaru in his arms. Sakura and Chōji followed suit and not a moment later, a figure suddenly slammed into the ground where the three were just standing moments ago with his fist slamming into the ground in a painful impact.

Kiba, Sakura and Chōji looked at the intruder with a shocked look on each of their faces as the person stood up and put his left hand behind his back while extending his right hand in front of him with his fingers firmly side by side. Without warning, the figure turned around and faced the three, still in his fighting stance, as if he was waiting for one of them to step up and challenge him.

"Looks like he wants a fight…" Chōji said with a small tone of fear in his voice as he watched the person in front of him.

"Then I'll give him one" Kiba announced with a cocky smirk on his face but when he was about to step forward, Sakura grabbed his jacket and pulled him back forcefully, making him fall on his butt.

"We don't have time for this Kiba-san; we need to find Hinata and Naruto" Sakura said with a frown on her now pale face. She knew that this person was powerful just by his stance and it worried her greatly that if they fought this person, they would lose badly and next to her sparring sessions with her friends back at the academy, she had never been in a real fight before and she was very nervous.

Kiba looked at the pink haired girl for a moment and growled in annoyance, knowing that she was right but he was itching to fight this guy but he knew that when a girl is right, a girl is right.

He learned that the hard way from his older sister, Hana.

So with a glum look on his face, He quickly got up from off of the ground and ran for it along with Chōji and Sakura but the mysterious person did not let them get far, He quickly launched himself above them with a front flip and landed a few feet from them, blocking their path. He then snapped back into his fighting stance, waiting for anyone to step up once again. The three slide to a stop when they saw the person ahead of them and openly stared in shock.

This guy moved so quickly, it was like they had moved in slow motion. "He's obviously not going to let us go" Sakura muttered with a terrified look on her face, her legs and hands shaking so hard, it felt like they were going to fall off of her body any second.

She solemnly wished that it was Sasuke-kun she was placed with instead of Kiba or Chōji because she knew that he would protect her from this man with all of his heart like a true knight in shining armor.

Chōji noticed her shaking violently and gently placed his hands on her left shoulder, hoping that she would calm down before she fainted out of sheer terror. Sakura felt the hand on her shoulder and shrieked in fear but when she saw it was Chōji's hand, she relaxed ever so slightly and said in a soft tone,_ "I'm alright…"_ but that was far from the truth.

Kiba on the other hand was excited at facing an unknown opponent.

Like Sakura and all of his other friends, he had only sparred with his family and friends at the academy and being in a real fight was a welcomed experience to him. "Well since we can't get run for it now, I say I get first whack at him" Kiba said with a smirk, flexing his claw like hands as he stepped forward with Akamaru next to him.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Hinata_**

"Hinata…How did you know I was here?" Naruto asked her after a few moments of silence, a look of confusion etched on his sullen face. Hinata paused for a second, wondering if she should tell Naruto that Hatake Kakashi told her where he was or to tell him otherwise. She then decided to tell him the truth.

"A jōnin named Hatake K-Kakashi told me where he w-was because he was worried, just as much as I am r-r-right now." She answered as she took a hesitant step towards him but was crestfallen when he took a step away from her before looking down at his feet.

"You should be with your team, not here with me," Naruto said softly as he looked at her. She should be with her team and going out on awesome missions instead of looking for a dope like him.

"N-Naruto-kun….I w-wanted to be here, w-w-with you," She said gently as she took another step forward towards him, smiling softly when he didn't take another step away. "Y-You're my best friend a-and nothing will e-ever stop me from b-being there for y-you…" She added with a blush on her face.

"Hinata-chan…"

* * *

**_Team Kiba_**

"Well since we can't get run for it now, I say I get first whack at him!"

Sakura and Chōji stared at their feral comrade, each sporting a nervous glance as Kiba stepped forward. "Are you sure this is wise, Kiba-san?" Sakura asked as she stared at Kiba's form as he stretched his body out.

"I'm sure Sakura, I've been itching for a real fight since forever and this guy has given me a perfect chance to see what I can do," Kiba replied as he slowly crouched down and opened his hands in a clawing motion while spreading his arms from his sides slightly as he stared at the unknown warrior.

"I'll give you one chance, get out of our way or I'll force you out of It," Kiba said with a confidant smirk. When the unknown man didn't move, Kiba's smirk grew larger and that's when he charged at him, shouting "Don't say I didn't warn you, pal!"

When he got close to his opponent, Kiba started his attack by slashing his right claw at a downward angle at his opponents face but his mask wearing opponent quickly and moved to the side but Kiba then aimed his left arm in a upwards angle towards his opponent but once again, the masked warrior dodged it. Growing frustrated, Kiba began to claw at the man, his swings become more reckless by the second, leaving the warrior openings to not only dodge the blows but to attack the boy as well.

After dodging one more reckless swing from the Inuzuka, The warrior decided to go on the offensive. As Kiba lunged his right arm at him, the masked man sidestepped the attack while simultaneously grabbing Kiba's extended right arm and without any warning or sympathy, he turned his body around and slammed Kiba over his shoulder and on to the ground hard back first, knocking the newly named genin unconscious.

Sakura and Chōji (along with Akamaru) were completely stunned. Everything happened so quickly. One minute, Kiba had attacked and the next minute, Kiba was unconscious on the ground with the unknown above him in victory.

The masked shinobi then turned around to the two conscious genin and stepped back into his fighting stance. At that moment, Chōji and Sakura then knew that they were in serious trouble.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Hinata_**

"No. You need to go back Hinata...Just leave me alone…" Naruto said with a pleading tone in his voice.

He didn't want to say those words to Hinata but he really wanted to be alone right now and he already felt bad enough about her being here with him instead of being with her team.

"Naruto-k-kun please, d-don't shut me out," Hinata begged as she closed the distance between them by grabbing his rough, calloused hands with her much smaller, smoother, petite hands and that's when Naruto noticed something wrapped on her left ring finger.

It was an orange rubber band. It took a few seconds but Naruto quickly remembered what this rubber band was meant for and that's when his mind suddenly took him back to when it showed up.

* * *

**_Konohagakure no Sato_**

**_Flashback_**

_Naruto was having a great day. _

_It started out normal enough with him waking up earlier that morning, eating his ramen at Ichikaru's and then he stared his regularly scheduled pranking hour and now it was time for him to meet Hinata at the park. _

_As Naruto was walking to the park to meet with Hinata, he noticed that there was this couple that was talking on a bench in front of the park. Normally this wouldn't be an odd thing but suddenly, the man kneeled down on one knee and pulled out something a box and said something "Will you marry me?"_

_He then watched the woman touch her face softly with tears falling from her eyes. He then saw the woman nod and gave the man kneeling before her a huge smile as the man slide that thing on her left ring finger. _

_The woman then hugged the man and then the man gave her a loving kiss on the lips as people around them clapped and cheered. "Marry?" Naruto said to himself in a questioning tone, tilting his head in confusion. "What does that mean?" _

_After waiting for everyone to leave, Naruto marched into the park and waited patiently at their designated meeting area (The swings) for Hinata and when she arrived, Naruto walked up to Hinata and asked "Hinata-chan. What does "marry" Mean?" _

_Hinata stared at her friend with the same confused look that was on his face and said "I d-don't know. Why do y-you ask, N-Naruto-kun?" _

_Naruto then told her what happened before she arrived and when he was done, she still looked confused. "Maybe Jii-san will know something about this 'Marry' thing," Naruto said before grabbing Hinata's hand, making her blush, and together, the two friends started their trek to the Hokage tower. _

* * *

**_Hokage Tower_**

_"Hiya Ilia-chan!" Naruto said with a right smile as a young woman with long platinum blond hair that was in a ponytail, blue iris-less eyes, a white shirt, a white dress and a pair of white shoes. _

_Her name was Yamanaka Ilia and she was currently typing something on the computer in front of her when she heard a familiar voice call her name. She leaned forward and smiled at the young tan face of Uzumaki Naruto and the pale face of….The Hyūga princess?! _

_What was Naruto doing with the Hyūga Hinata? _

_"Ah, hello Naruto-kun, Hyūga-sama," Ilia said with a smile as well as a small bow towards Hinata which the smaller girl returned. Naruto, completely clueless about the bowing simply smiled and asked "Is Jii-san busy today Ilia-chan?"_

_Ilia looked at the boy and said "Yes, he's with the council at the moment so you will have to come back and see him later." _

_Naruto kicked the ground while saying in a disappointed tone "Aw man, I had something important to ask him." _

_Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Ilia asked the small child "What's so important that you have to ask him?" _

_Naruto tilted his head and replied "Me and Hinata-chan wanted to ask him what 'marry' means." Ilia stared at the boy for a second and then smiled. She knew what he meant but she was still curious as to way he wanted to know what it meant. _

_"I see. Well, why do you want to know about that?" Naruto then told her about what he encountered at the park before meeting Hinata and when he was done, Ilia mentally thought 'Aww. That's so cute. He wants to know about marriages' before saying "Well then Naruto-kun. I'll just tell you about it instead." _

_Naruto smiled and sat down on the ground to listen to what she had to say while Hinata did the same. Ilia knew that going into the details about marriages would take too long to explain so she decided to take the simpler route by explaining it the way a kid would understand._

_"Being married, which is the word you were trying to say Naruto, is like being together with you best friend for the rest of your life, no matter what happens." _

_Naruto and Hinata looked at each other and smiled before Naruto said "Then why don't we get married, Hinata-chan?" _

_Hinata and Ilia were surprised when Naruto asked that but Ilia smiled when Hinata looked down at the ground with a huge blush on her face. "I-If you w-want too," Hinata stuttered out with a faint smile on her face._

_ Naruto smiled and gave her a big hug which made Ilia go "Aww" as Hinata hugged him back. _

_Naruto then tilted his head upwards and remembered that the man had put something on the lady's left ring finger and letting go of Hinata, much to her disappointment, He reached behind his long untamed hair and pulled off an orange rubber band, letting his hair fall from his pony tailed shape. _

_"I saw the man give the woman something on her left other middle finger so I wanted to do it too," Naruto explained as he held up Hinata's small left hand and wrapped the orange rubber band around her ring finger and smiled. _

_"Now we're married Hinata-chan!" Hinata smiled at the blond haired boy, despite the huge blush on her face before she gave him another hug which he returned. Naruto then realized he missed something he thought he was supposed to do so released the hug and gave her a small peck on the lips. _

_"The guy did that so I thought I was supposed too do it too," Naruto explained with a tilt of the head as Ilia watched Hinata's face turn so red, it would make an apple jealous. _

_"N-N-Naruto-kun...Kissed me…" Hinata said in dazed tone before she closed her eyes and slumped to the ground. _

_The last words she heard before completely blacking out, causing Ilia plenty of amusement but made Naruto alarmed and worried yell of "Hinata-chan!"_

* * *

**_Flashback end_**

"P-Please Naruto-kun," Hinata repeated as she put her left hand on his cheek softly, unknowingly snapping him out of his flashback as she felt more tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She wanted Naruto see that she really wanted…She needed to be with him and she would do anything to help him see that.

Naruto looked at Hinata's lavender pearl eyes and saw that they were still shining from the tears she had shed earlier and immediately felt guilty. Here she was missing out on meeting her sensei and going on some awesome adventure just to be with him and it made his heart soar but he still was unsure.

I mean it was only a day ago since he thought and only knew of his best friend as just another girl. A cute girl but a girl nonetheless and he felt that if she didn't talk to him today or if he wasn't her best friend at all…Would she be here with him now?

Naruto bit his bottom lip and slowly took a step back from Hinata and said "Hinata-chan…Before today, I only thought of you as some girl in my class and not my best friend…I mean…I was oblivious to you to be honest and you were too shy or too scared to even say hello to me…What I'm trying to say is that what if I wasn't you're best friend or what if you decided not to talk to me today…would you be here?"

* * *

**_Team Shino_**

While Kiba, Chōji and Sakura were dealing with the masked warrior, things on their end weren't going as well as they previously were. Just a few minutes ago, Shino had found their mysterious attacker standing in the forest. From the scent coming off of the assailant, Shino quickly realized that this was a female attacker but this scent was very familiar with the Aburame.

When Shikamaru suggested that they get the drop on the attacker, they were quickly ambushed by tons of Kunai, Shuriken and other weapons. The three ducked behind a few trees that was destroyed from the female attacker and began to sort out a plan. The three knew that they couldn't defeat the weapon mistress head on so they needed to think this through.

"Alright everyone, this is the plan. Shino-san, I want you to try and fight this person head to head while me and Ino try and find a way to either get her in my shadow possession Jutsu or Ino's mind control Jutsu. This way, if one of us fails, the other won't. Are you able to do that?" Shino nodded his head wordlessly. If he knew the person that was behind that mask, then she would have no qualms about fighting him.

He had to smirk underneath his collar. Since he found that kunai in the forest, he has been itching to see how she changed since the last time they fought. "How much time do I need to distract her?"

Shikamaru, who had ducked under the tree even more due to a large shuriken soaring over his head, he grumbled to himself for a moment before turning his attention to Shino and saying "It will take us some time to get to the right position for any of us to attack since she's moving too fast for me or Ino's jutsu to work so I'm going to ballpark it and say five minutes."

Shino nodded his head at this in understanding but inwardly he was nervous. He remembers his father telling him a few days before he graduated that in a life or death battle, every minute seems like an eternity and Shino knew that this girl beneath that mask could find many different ways to skewer him and that made him nervous.

"I will distract her long enough for you two to finish this plan but if I need assistance, I do expect one of you to help." Shikamaru nodded while mentally noticing how Shino's body language had changed once again from his normal stoic, stiff movements to something akin to…excitement?

Shikamaru nodded at Shino before realizing that he never asked Ino her opinion about this situation. He turned his head and his eyes met her troubled eyes and asked "Ino, do you have any questions about this?"

Ino couldn't say that she was ready for this.

That person looked and felt stronger than them but she also knew that Shikamaru had a plan for everything and they always worked. So she would need to place her trust in him as well as her stoic companion as well. "I...I have no problems with this plan but if it fails…" She balled her fist up at the Nara who paled in understanding.

"A-Alright then guys, let's do this and please try not to get killed," Shikamaru replied, regaining the color in his face.

And with those inspiring final words to his team, the three split apart with Ino going to the right, Shikamaru to the left and Shino hopping over the fallen tree and quickly using his Kunai to deflect some the weapons being thrown at him while also using his speed to dodge the weapons as well but his speed and his skilled deflection wasn't enough to keep him from getting injured. He winced in pain as a shuriken flew into his shoulder as another flew into his right leg but after that, the weapons stopped coming, leaving him as well as Shikamaru and Ino on edge.

Without any warning, the pink masked warrior appeared behind him with her Kodachi drawn and raised in the air before slashing it down at him but to her utter surprise; he turned around and used his kunai to block the fatal slash. Shino looked at the Kodachi in her hand and smirked underneath his collar and whispered _"I'm surprised you of all people are here..."_

When he looked through the eye holes in her mask, he could feel the intense glare coming from her chocolate brown eyes. _"Aburame…_" she whispered his name in such a dark and disrespecting tone, it made Shino almost flinch…Almost. With a violent push, the two disengaged and the two took a few steps back to give each other some room.

Shino watched as she readjusted her Kodachi into her right hand as she moved her left hand behind her back and pulled another kodachi into his view and with a frown, he watched her twirl it in her left hand before pointing it straight at him.

"This time…Only one of us will walk out of here…" She said with an ice tone in her voice.

Shino pulled out another kunai and gripped them both in his hands with a look of determination on his face.

"Understood."

* * *

**_Hyūga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto_**

Naruto didn't even see it coming. One minute he was standing in front of his shocked best friend and the next minute, he was on the ground holding his reddened cheek. He looked up at the enraged, tear streaked face of his best friend and with a stunned tone in his voice, he said "Hinata-chan…You hit me."

Hinata stared down at him with anger in her lavender eyes and without a hint of a stutter, she said "I sure did and I won't hesitate to do it again!"

Naruto then watched her enraged face slowly melt until it was sad face and with a frown, she kneeled next to Naruto's downed form and said "Listen and listen good N-Naruto-kun because I won't say this again. Even if I d-didn't talk to you today, I would've still been by your side, you know why?"

When Naruto shook his head, she lifted up her left hand and pointed to the orange rubber band that was on her ring finger. "That's why. When you gave this to me that day, I swore to myself that I would stay by your side, even if you forgot about me…"

She then laughed bitterly to herself and continued "Even when you forgot about me, I still remained by your side Naruto-kun. I never left it. Everywhere you went, I watched you f-from the shadows just to s-stay with you. You were right though, I was too scared to talk to you in fear that you had forgotten about me…"

Naruto looked down at the ground in guilt when she said this but then he felt her arms wrap around him. Naruto slowly wrapped his arms around her petite form and he felt her shake her head underneath his chin, tickling him a little.

She then looked up at him with her eyes shining from the tears she had shed and said "And even if you didn't believe me or if we weren't best friends at all…I would've still stayed by your side and I know that for certain…" Naruto stared at her for a moment, completely stunned before a soft smile formed on his face, All of his doubt and uncertainty slowly melting from his heart.

"I'm sorry Hinata-chan…" Naruto said softly as his grip tightened around her. He saw her blush softly as she stroked the cheek she had hit softly, staring into his shining blue eyes. "I would do anything to be w-with you. Even if I have to hit you every o-once in a while" She replied with a slight tearful giggle at the end of her sentence.

Naruto grinned at her gently and she smiled back at him but slowly, Naruto's grin and Hinata's smile slowly disappearing from their faces as clapping reached their ears. The two were then moved their faces away from each other as an unknown man slowly clapped while he was leaning in a tree.

Naruto, who was very pissed off for reasons he could not figure out yet shouted "Who are you?!" at the intruder. The man said nothing as he stepped into a stance that Hinata recognized instantly.

It was the Jūken stance. The only people that could do that stance were people from her clan. "N-Naruto-kun…We need to get o-out of here," Hinata said nervously as the person turned his attention to her, glaring fiercely beneath his mask before charging at her.

Seeing this, Naruto summoned a few clones to deal with the person so he and Hinata could get to their feet but when they did, Hinata and the Real Naruto was hit dead in the chest by a Jūken strike from the man, knocking them down to the ground. Naruto flipped back up to his feet as Hinata back flipped back to her feet and frowned deeply. That strike was too close to the heart and it was a powerful strike as well.

She as well as Naruto knew that whoever this person was, he was out to kill them. The two looked at each other with a mix of nervousness and determination and nodded before Hinata stepped into her Jūken stance as Naruto stepped in a sloppy boxer's stance.

This fight just got very personal, very quickly.

* * *

Rain: Oh boy. Looks like everyone is going to fight now! Can Naruto and Hinata defeat this stranger? Can Team Kiba and Team Shino defeat theirs as well and where the hell is Shinji and Sasuke? Find out next time!

Mario: See you next time


	5. Chapter 5

Rain: Hello gang! Here's the next chapter of **_Naruto: Legend of team Zero!_** Oh yeah. A cookie to everyone for guessing the mysterious warriors' Identities. Nice job guys now...Let us begin!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of team Zero_**

**_Chapter Five: The Masks of Rage_**

**_Team Shino_**

Shikamaru watched in thought and in awe as Shino and the pink masked warrior traded and blocked blows from each other at such a fast pace, He felt that if he were to blink, he would lose them entirely. Shino ducked under an attempted kill strike and aimed a kick at her head but she swiftly turned her kodachi so that it was flat and put it in front of her face, blocking Shino's kick.

Shino scowled and pulled his leg back into a bent position before aiming another kick at her face but to his displeasure, she swiftly moved her head to the side and turned her left kodachi to its flat side and hit Shino in the back, making him stumble and fall to the ground face first but he quickly returned to his feet and gripped his Kunai once more.

"So…Did you know Shino-san could fight like this?" Ino said with awe in her voice, watching as Shino eyed his opponent down behind his glasses.

Shikamaru shook his head but it made sense.

Shino was a very good student and there was no way he clan would have him rely on just their bugs alone.

Shino and Pink stared each other down for a moment before Shino closed their distance and slashed his kunai downwards at her neck but Pink blocked the strike with her right Kodachi and the two slowly leaned their foreheads against each other, each sporting a scowl on their faces.

Having enough of this stare down between them, Shino quickly maneuvered behind Pink and attempted to stab her from behind but Pink anticipated this and reached behind her and blocked the strike with her left Kodachi before turning her body and slide the feet from below the Aburame, making him land face first on the ground.

However, before she could capitalize on this opportunity to strike him down, Shino grabbed her left ankle and tugged it back roughly, making her fall to the ground as well but then she looked back and turned her body around to her back and used her right foot to kick Shino in his face, forcing him to let her left ankle go.

With a smirk beneath her mask, she lifted up her left leg and attempted to slam it on his spin but he quickly turned around and caught her foot by the heel before lifting himself up, forcing her to turn around on her belly and kneeled on one knee while twisting her left ankle roughly, making her scream out in pain. He wrenched her ankle to the right and wrapped his legs around her leg before falling to the ground on his back and increasing the torturous technique.

After a minute of the intense pain she was in, she was able to turn around on her back and lifted her right leg before slamming it down on the Aburame's face, forcing him to let go of the hold as well as breaking the right lens on his glasses. Pink smirked and rolled backwards away from the hurt genin before flipping back onto her feet.

Shino scowled and hit the ground with his fist in frustration before standing on his feet and wiping the blood off of his mouth. "You've gotten slower Aburame" Pink said with a superior tone in her voice as she twirled the two kodachis in each of her hands.

Shino scowled beneath his collar and wanted nothing more but to charge at her and defeat her but he knew that Pink had planned all of this so he could not rush in. If he were, he was sure that there was a trap waiting to destroy him and he narrowed his eyes at Pink. He would never let her have the satisfaction in seeing him defeated…Not again.

* * *

**_Team Kiba_**

"Kiba!" Sakura yelled out in worry as she stared at her comrade's fallen form. Chōji balled his fist up in anger before recklessly charging at Green. He could let a lot of things slide in his life.

People calling him fat at any given chance, people making fun of how fast and how often he ate or even by his looks but there was one thing that he did not tolerate in his life and that was hurting his friends.

Green's eyes widened beneath at the speed the chubby shinobi was showing and crossed his arms in front of his chest and blocked a painful punch from Chōji's enlarged fist, making him fly into a tree back first, nearly obliterating it. Chōji smiled and pumped his fist into the air in victory as Sakura cheered behind him before a voice said from behind the smoke, "Yosh..."

Chōji's and Sakura's ears perked up when they heard the voice and quickly put their guards up once more. Chōji frowned and stepped into the Akimichi taijutsu stance and scowled when he saw Green's figure in the smoke, shaking his arms to sooth the hit Chōji had just delivered to him seconds ago.

"Man Genin-san, your attack was very powerful. I barely had time to block it," Green's voice rang out through the smoke with an oddly cheerful tone as the smoke dissipated, revealing himself to them. His uniform was torn in someplace and his mask was cracked down the middle. "But you won't be able to do it again," Green said as he stepped into his taijutsu stance once more.

Sakura watched in worry as Chōji scowled as he charged forward to clothesline his opponent but in a fluid motion, Green jumped over his wild lariat, twisted his body around and axe kicked Chōji directly on his head, making his face slam hard into the ground, seemingly knocking the chubby Genin to the ground near the downed Kiba, unconscious.

When he was about to get up, a clawed hand grabbed his wrist and forced him back to the ground. _"Chōji, don't get up yet…"_ Kiba roughly whispered in his ear.

Chōji stared at his feral friend and smirked at him, which was very un-Chōji like. Chōji knew what Kiba was planning. By faking his unconsciousness, Kiba would be able to sneak up on the Green and get the drop on him like Green had got the drop on them. Chōji nodded and laid his face on the ground but kept his eyes squinted along with Kiba.

Sakura saw Chōji fall to the ground and wanted to scream out his name but fear gripped her as Green slowly approached her. "Looks like you're the only one left cherry blossom…" Green said with a smile beneath his mask but instead of his voice sounding cocky, he sounded rather polite which dropped Sakura's guard for a split second. Green saw this and his smile changed into a wide grin when he jumped towards her and shouted "**Leaf Whirlwind!**"

Sakura, having no time to duck the attack, raised her arm to block it but when his leg hit her arm, she quickly felt her arm go numb as well and would have been sent in the air had not someone grabbed her mid-flight. When she opened her eyes, she saw the smiling face of Chōji above her.

Green saw this and inwardly sighed in relief, not liking the fact that he had hurt that beautiful flower when he promised himself that he would not harm any female but this was his mission so he had no choice.

Green then leapt in the air in an attempt to attack the recovered Akimichi as well as the pink haired girl in the chubby shinobi's arm but then he felt someone grab his arms and force them behind his back before he felt a pair of knees slam into his back before slamming down to the ground mask/face first.

"Did you really think you had beaten me so quickly, you dirty bastard?!" Kiba yelled while looking down at the masked warrior with a scowl on his face. Green shook his head in light annoyance and with great strength; he managed to get onto his feet with Kiba still on his back and quickly darted backwards towards a tree.

Kiba, figuring out what Green was thinking let go of Green's hands and quickly switched himself with a log at the last second before Green smashed the log into pieces upon impact against the tree. The three genins stood in shock when the log splintered against Green's back and the tree. Kiba and Chōji looked at each other in worry before stepping into their clan's respected Taijutsu stances and prepared to bum-rush Green until Sakura stepped in the middle and said "I will not let you two do this on your own."

Chōji turned his head to his crush in worry before saying "But Sakura-chan, your arm…" Sakura shook her head and stared forward at Green in determination. Before, she wouldn't think about fighting someone stronger than her.

Hell, she never thought about fighting at all but she realized that during their short battle with Green, she had done nothing to him and simply watched as Kiba and Chōji got hurt trying to fight him and despite that, they were still trying to fight him while she just wanted to surrender or ask them to wait until Sasuke-kun got here.

She couldn't just stand there any longer and let them get beaten by this freak in green. "I don't care about my arm Chōji-kun," Sakura said as she balled up her left fist and frowned. "All I care about is finding that baka Naruto and Hinata and this _freak_ is standing in our way!" She screamed in anger, her frown replaced by a scowl.

Kiba barked out in laughter before grinning at the girl next to him, saying "Well, look who finally decided to become a kunoichi. Let's see if your hits are as hard as Naruto says."

Sakura wisely ignored Kiba's comment and said "Let's defeat this guy for good," Kiba and Chōji nodded and without any more words, the three charged at Green, hoping to defeat him and move on to find their friends.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Hinata_**

Silver smirked beneath his mask as he deflected Hinata's Jūken strike that was aimed at his chest while also deflecting Naruto's sloppy right hook and somehow maneuvered the two attacks to hit his two opponents. Meaning, Hinata's Juken strike hit Naruto in his chest while Naruto simultaneously hit Hinata in her face with his right hook, sending both of them flying in the opposite directions.

"Why don't you two give up? It's both of your fates to lose to me on this day," Silver said as he placed both of his hands behind his back, his arrogant tone ringing out in both of his opponent's ears. "Especially you," Silver turned his head and stared at Hinata, who was wiping the blood off of the corner of her mouth before standing up off then ground to face the masked warrior. "You're too weak to even be a Shinobi, let alone in the Hyūga clan at all so what are you doing here?"

A deep frown formed on Hinata's face as she lowered her head sadly. Why did she have to face him on this day? She was already weakened emotionally due to her earlier argument with Naruto and now she had to deal with his tormenting words? It just wasn't fair.

Hinata's head the rose in alarm as she heard Naruto say "Don't you dare….Talk about Hinata-chan like that…" Naruto struggled to get to his feet thanks to Hinata's misaimed strike to the chest.

He knew that she could hit hard due to her lying the smack down on him earlier but that blow was extremely painful and he found it extremely difficult to shake it off.

Silver turned his head towards the blond on struggling on the ground and then turned back to Hinata with a smirk and said "'Hinata-chan' huh? Perhaps I should let **him** know about this recent development."

Hinata's sad face turned into a horrified one when he mentioned **him**. If he were to find out, He would force her to never see Her dear Naruto-kun again and that thought terrified her. "Please, don't tell **him**. Please," Hinata said as with tears flowing from her eyes. Silver smirked and walked to her fallen form and said "If you really want me to not tell him then kneel before your superior and beg for me not to tell."

Hinata stared at Silver with tears in her eyes and then turned her attention to Naruto, who was on his knees, holding his chest in pain, begging her not to do what that asshole told her to do but then she turned her attention back to Silver who said "Do it."

Hinata fell on her knees and placed her hands on the ground as well and shouted "Please Neji-Nii…Please don't tell him about Naruto-kun, please…"

Silver looked down at Hinata as she lowered her head in shame and laughed cruelly at her predicament. He really loved the sight of the Hyūga heiress on her hands and knees before him. It really bought a twisted smile to his face. Naruto on the other hand was very angered by this and felt the rage and hatred build up inside of him.

Silver laughed and put his right foot on Hinata's head and said "Look at the mighty Hyūga heiress of the main branch, kneeling before a house branch member, how your father would be ashamed of you…Not more than he was anyways," Naruto stared at this scene with nothing short of shock on his face but then it happened.

Anger.

Pure, unadulterated anger.

His breath had become shuttered as his eyes flickered from blue to crimson; red chakra slowly began to slowly seep from around his body. Whoever this guy was had not only made Hinata cry, He forced her to choice between him and her dignity and it tore him apart to see her kneeling before him but then Silver decided to press his foot down harder on her head, making her forehead touch the ground. That, along with tears and a tortured sob from Hinata's lips tore it for him.

Naruto's eyes seemed to darken with rage in his heart, he stood up and charged towards the smug silver masked boy, an inhuman roar leaving his lips along with wisps of blue chakra leaving his body.

Silver hadn't even seen it coming. One minute he was laughing at Hinata's suffering and the next, he was soaring through the air from a hard punch in the jaw from the dead last.

Luckily, he was able to recover in the air and land on his feet instead of landing on his back but before he could look up, a hard right knee had slammed into his face, cracking his mask and sending him flying backwards to the ground on his back.

"You…" Silver started out as he rose to his feet, his eyes narrowed beneath his mask, staring at the infinitely pissed off blond, his eyes widening slightly at the faint traces of crimson chakra he was seeing with his Byakugan.

_'What the hell is this?' _

"You dare lay your filthy hands on me?!" Neji asked while Naruto, who was standing next to the still kneeling Hinata scowled at Silver for a moment before gently taking Hinata and walking to a tree far away and placing her against it before turning around and glaring at Neji, his fists balled so tightly, his nails and broken through his skin and blood slowly started to trickle from his palms.

"The minute you forced Hinata-chan to kneel before you, It put you on my shit list." Silver darkly chuckled at Naruto's words as he stepped into his Jūken stance and said "Why do you go against fate? You should know that I'm your superior. It's fated that you as well as the weakling next to you to lose."

Naruto closed his eyes and felt his scowl deepened when he heard this and said "I don't believe in fate…" Naruto stated as he walked forward and stepped into his sloppy boxing stance and stared at Silver once more before thirty clones appeared around him, all of them saying "But I believe in kicking your ass around this monument!"

Silver glared beneath his mask and simply replied "You don't believe in fate? Hn Then let me make you into a believer!" Neji scowled and removed his mask before throwing it at full speed at Naruto, who had begun to charge towards his enemy with his clones, the orginal's eyes glaring forward, as if staring at Neji's soul, not even taking his gaze of the silver eyed Hyūga even as the mask that had hit him in his shoulder. Neji sneered at this and charged forward to meet this lowlife shinobi head on.

Because if fate wanted him to win, he would have to put some work into it, right?

* * *

**_Team Shino_**

Shino gasped in pain as Pink's katana came down on his shoulder, forcing him to one of his knees as his kunai stopped her katana from fully amputating him. Shino thought that he had depleted her speed when he got her in that ankle lock but to his utter surprise, her speed had doubled since then and when she attacked, he found himself outclassed in every way.

That's when he realized that she was toying with him. Despite him not showing it, he was upset as well as angry. "looks like this is the end Aburame" Pink said with a sneer on her face as she forced her Katana down on his shoulder more, making him grunt in pain.

Ino was watching Shino fall on his second knee and yelled "The hell with this!" Before jumping out of her hiding spot and running towards the unsuspecting Pink and stopped mid run and with a thrust of her right leg, she kicked Pink hard in the cheek, sending the masked kunoichi falling to the ground on her side, knocking her katana away into the brush of the forest.

Pink shook her head to snap her out of her small dizzy spell and then looked up at this new challenger and said to Shino "Looks like you needed help in fighting me Aburame."

Pink then stood up and shook her head once more before staring at Ino who was giving the tired and wounded Shinobi next to her a small pout while saying "I wanted to show this off when I was on my first mission but it looks like now is my time to show off!" Her pout quickly turned into a smile as she slowly began to move in some strange dancing movement That Shino or Pink had ever seen before.

Shikamaru was surprised at Ino's sudden appearance but he closed his eyes and smirked to himself.

_'Seems like Ino finally decided to intervene and show off what training she's been bragging about before our graduation. Good, hopefully this will speed up my plan to its climax…' _Shikamaru thought to himself as he opened his eyes and watched Ino's dance like movements began to speed up.

Without warning, Ino's right leg lashed out and tried to kick Pink in the face/mask but Pink moved to the side to avoid this but was taken by surprise when Ino suddenly twisted her body around and used her left foot to sweep Pink's feet from underneath her, making her fall to the ground.

Pink saw Ino twirl her legs in the air and suspected what was coming and quickly rolled away right before Ino's right leg slammed in the spot she was in. Pink rolled back to her feet and had to take a step back to avoid Ino's left leg hitting her in her chin but then she watched as Ino got on her back and pushed herself off the ground and flew towards her.

Pink jumped over Ino's body to avoid the attack but was dropped kicked in the chest by a slightly rejuvenated Shino, sending her falling towards the ground where Ino was waiting. Pink tried to recover while she was in the air but Ino jumped in the air and kicked Pink hard in the back, sending her soaring towards Shino who was running towards her and with a hidden smirk, he tackled her in mid-flight but to his shock, her body exploded into smoke and when it had dispersed, A log was in his arms instead of her.

"A replacement Jutsu…"Shino said out in aggravation, really wanting this fight to come to a close but then his Kikai suddenly started to buzz erratically, warning him that someone dangerous was behind him.

"Shino, watch out!" Ino shouted as Pink suddenly materialized behind him with her Katana high in the air, ready to strike the Aburame down in cold blood.

Everything started to go in slow motion it Ino as she watched Shino slowly turn around to see the blade coming down at him but before he could even try and defend himself, Shikamaru suddenly appeared in front of him with a kunai in his hand, blocking Pink's swing. Shino then took this time to move in front of Shikamaru and punched Pink hard in the stomach, sending her soaring through the air.

Ino saw this and grinned as she ran towards them, shouting "Give me a boost!" Shikamaru and Shino linked their arms together and when Ino jumped on their arms, the two tossed her up in the air above Pink who was dazed from Shino's blow and with a grin, Ino twisted herself around in the air and slammed her left leg into Pink's head hard, sending her head slamming face first into the ground, causing the mask to make a spider crack.

Ino rolled away from Pink's body and kneeled in between Shikamaru and Shino, all three of them panting, seeing if Pink would wake up. When Pink didn't wake up, Shino walked towards the downed girl and put two fingers on the pulse in her neck and said "She's unconscious…. "

Shikamaru smirked tiredly and crossed his arms while leaning on the tree next to him. His plan, despite Shino becoming a minor role while Ino stole the spotlight near the end of this scene was a success. Ino pumped her fist up in the air in excitement before bumping her knuckles with Shikamaru while Shino said "We need to keep moving."

Ino, still glowing after her first battle asked "Why?"

Shino turned back at her and said "Uzumaki-san and Hinata-san could have been attacked as well."

Shikamaru's eyes widened at this thought.

He didn't think to realize that if they were attacked then the others could be in danger as well.

"If that's the case then Kiba and the others could be in danger too!" Ino shouted out in concern, coming to the same conclusion as the other two members of her team.

"That's why we should hurry to find Hinata and Naruto then. If my guess is correct, then they are in the most danger," Shino said with a hidden frown on his face.

"Yes, Kiba, Chōji and Sakura are tough enough to deal with their opponent. Naruto and Hinata on the other hand must have gotten the strongest one out of the three," Shikamaru added with a frown on his face as well.

"What are we going to do with her?" Ino asked, referring to their defeated opponent. Without any words said, Shino hoisted Pink over his right shoulder, answering Ino's question.

"Let's move" Shikamaru ordered and together, the three darted away. Moments later, a tree slowly began to wane until it disappeared, leaving an impressed Kurenai alone in the forest.

* * *

**_Team Kiba_**

Green's eyes widened beneath his mask as he ducked Chōji's right hook and Kiba's left roundhouse kick. _'Tenten…She's been defeated,'_ Green thought to himself as he kicked Kiba in the face while also punching Chōji in the stomach.

Green then flipped backwards and jumped on a very large tree branch and said "Well my youthful friends, As much as I would like to continue our bout, I must see to my youthful comrade so Sayonara!"

Before Green could leave however, Kiba and Chōji suddenly appeared in front and with a scowl on their faces, the two began to attack him. Green managed to block Chōji's left uppercut but was quickly hit in the chest by Kiba's left foot but the two wasn't done yet.

As green stumbled backwards, Chōji bent forward and Kiba placed his both of his hands on over the chubby boy's back and hopped over it and dropped kicked Green in his chest then with grin, Kiba jumped off of Chōji's back and landed behind Green and aimed a punch at the back of his head but Green saw this and quickly turned around and blocked the punch but was hit in his ribs by Chōji's right lariat.

Green recovered in the air and landed on a fallen tree and crouched down on his right knee, holding his ribs in pain but little did he know, Sakura was watching him underneath the fallen tree he was crouching on, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Chōji and Kiba looked at each other and jumped down towards Green, each aiming their fists at him. Green looked up and with a grunt, Green opened his palms and caught the two genin's fists in both of his palms but that's when Sakura saw her chance. With a mighty jump, Sakura appeared above Kiba and Chōji and with a shout; she aimed her punch right at Green's mask.

Green saw the surprise attack coming and thanks to his speed, he was barely able avoid being decapitated by Sakura's painful looking punch by ducking under it and with a frown, Green pushed the two genin's fist away from him, forcing them to soar in the air backwards while Sakura landed in front Green and engaged him in a Taijutsu battle.

Green blocked her first few punches and then ducked underneath Sakura's sloppy roundhouse kick before giving her a rising elbow strike to her chin, making her fall to the ground but she quickly got up and threw a punch at his face which he had to jump back to dodged but when he did, he managed to see her entire arm go through the tree.

Sakura slowly removed her arm from out of the tree and charged forward to punch Green once more but as he maneuvered to the side to avoid her punch, a jolt of pain rushed through him. Green rolled away from her and held his ribs with his right arm in pain.

Thanks to Chōji's lariat from earlier, he was a lot slower than before as well as weaker but before he knew it, Sakura had suddenly appeared before him and landed a painful side kick to his ribs, sending him skidding on the fallen tree but he was able to recover mid-skid by stabbing a kunai into the tree, sliding to a stop as he reached the edge of the tree.

Green then looked up to see Chōji's enlarged fist coming at him and was barely able to move to the side to avoid the strike and with difficulty, Green rose up and punched the large genin in his stomach before slamming his left hand on the tree and kicking the boy's large chin, sending Chōji flying into the air where Kiba decided to jump over the soaring boy and landed in front of Green and punched the shinobi in the face, sending Green spiraling off of the fallen tree where Chōji and Sakura appeared next to him on both sides and both delivered a painful punch to his back, sending him flying faster.

Chōji and Sakura then landed on a tree that was closer to the ground and once Kiba landed next to them, they picked him up off his feet and onto their shoulders while he immediately became straight as a bullet and with a yell coming from all of them, Sakura and Chōji threw Kiba towards the falling Green and with a feral grin, Kiba speared Green by his back and together, the two crashed to the ground.

Kiba rolled off of his opponent and said "Looks like you failed!"

Green opened his eyes when he heard Kiba's voice and struggled to get back on his feet but fell back on his knees and back on the ground, unconscious. Sakura and Chōji landed next to the sitting Kiba and with a tired smile, the three looked down at their opponent and knew one thing.

He was done.

"Alright, we should get out of here. Who knows what other shit we might encounter out here" Kiba said with a crude smile as he stood up on his two feet.

"What should we do with him?" Chōji asked, concerned about the unconscious shinobi that was at their feet.

Sakura tilted her head in thought for a few moments before saying "We should take him with us. Maybe when he wakes up, he can tell us what in the world is going on."

Chōji nodded and hoisted Green over his shoulder and together, the three darted off to find their friends. A few seconds later, Asuma stepped out from behind a tree with a smirk on his face. "Yep, I think me and Kurenai hit the jackpot,"

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Hinata_**

Neji growled as Naruto held up by the neck with his right hand while his clones held down different parts of his body to keep him still, a victorious feral grin showing on his face. "L-Let me go," Neji said with groan of pain as Naruto's grip on his neck tightened.

The top half of his shinobi uniform was completely off of him, showing the large three slashes that went down from his right shoulder to his left hip as well as newly made scars from his fight with Naruto, his shinobi pants were ripped in multiple places and the wrap that hid his caged bird seal was completely off, revealing the infamous seal that was in the middle of his forehead. Naruto was also looking worse.

His orange jacket was completely torn off of his body as well as his black shirt, leaving his bare chest in open view, much to Hinata's happiness but when she looked closer, she was able to see all of his faded scars that littered his upper chest and back with a few of them bleeding. Thanks to this fight with her cousin…

Neji lifted his left arm and attempted to strike Naruto in his face with enough chakra to kill him but Naruto caught his arm and bent it the other way forcefully, making Neji scream out in torture, Making Hinata scream out in worry of her cousin as well as her best friend/crush.

Neji swung his head back and gave Naruto a head butt but when Naruto didn't let him go, Neji did it again but added more chakra to his attack, making Naruto drop him and that's when Neji scowled and hit Naruto square in his chest with his right palm with enough chakra to send the genin soaring into the forest behind him. Neji sneered as he fell on both of his knees, as he held his left arm in pure exhaustion.

He thought that from the moment he encountered these two failures that this mission that idiot sensei of his gave them would be in the bag but ever since he saw that strange chakra, everything seemed to double. His speed, his strength, his chakra output, his agility, his durability, EVEYTHING!

And despite his experience, Neji was being outclassed by this wet-behind-the-ears genin and it was driving him insane! But at least Neji knew that once this thing wore off, the dope would be worse off but until that time, he needed to get the upper hand. Neji's eyes shifted around for a moment before Hinata filled his vision. That's it.

Neji smirked darkly as Naruto marched forward, Naruto growled fiercely as he walked out of the forest has had flown in and slowly charged at his wounded opponent. Neji quickly darted to the stunned Hinata with a kunai in his working hand and placed it at her neck, making the enraged genin stop in his tracks. "One more step lowlife…And I kill her and rid the Hyūga clan of its greatest failure."

Hinata, who was already numb from being completely humiliated by her cousin in front of her best friend/crush, was feeling even worse when Neji said this. Why…Why did he say and do these things to her when she showed nothing but kindness to him. Seeing his best friend in danger, Naruto slide to a stop before a deep growl escaped his throat, glaring at the silver eyed genin.

If looks could kill, Neji would be dead ten times over.

Grunt in pain, Naruto dropped to the ground in pain, holding his stomach, panting heavily, causing Neji to smirk _'Without that odd Dōjutsu activated, every single attack that the failure was able to brush off returned in full force. Looks like my plan worked after all.' _

Neji thought with a victorious smirk on his face as he shoved the stunned Hinata to the ground next to her fallen friend and walked towards the boy and cruelly stomped on his ribs, making the boy scream underneath his foot before falling unconscious. Neji saw this and grinded his foot on the boy's chest, saying "Looks like I was right. You had the chance to kill me back there and instead you stopped to save this foolish failure's life. I guess failures stick together, huh?"

Seeing Neji lift his foot to stomp on her crush once more, Hinata quickly got on Naruto and took the painful stomp to her back, making her scream out in pain. Neji as well as Naruto was stunned at this selfless act but Neji quickly grew enraged and kicked her off of the wounded boy before he mercilessly stomped on her stomach, making her scream louder than before.

"You pathetic excuse of a Hyūga!" Neji shouted; completely losing his cool after that selfless act she just pulled. "You dare protect him from me?! Someone who's blood flows through your veins?!" Neji shouted with an enraged look in his eyes as he picked her up off the ground the ground with his good arm and tossed her body on Naruto's wounded body.

Neji then reached into his kunai pouch and took out a kunai and limped towards the two with a murderous glare in his eyes.

He smiled cruelly at the two people below him and said with a sneer "Hinata, Choosing someone over your own blood is known as high treason amongst the Hyūga clan. And the punishment…" Neji lifted the kunai high above his head.

"Is death!" But before Neji could stab the two, a fist suddenly planted itself into his stomach hard, knocking the angered boy unconscious. Hinata looked up and saw the figure of a tall man before her vision faded, the last thing she was able to see was two orange leg warmers on his legs.

* * *

Rain: And that ends the 5th chapter of **_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**. What will happen after the fallout of this incident? Find out in the next chapter so...

Mario: See you next time


	6. Chapter 6

Rain: Hello everyone, I'm Rain and this is the newest chapter of **_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero _**and this newest chapter will deal with the aftermath of the last two or three chapters so enjoy!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Six_**

"You cannot be serious Hokage-sama…" Gai said with a tone of disbelief in his voice.

Moments ago, He had punched his un-youthful student, Hyūga Neji in the stomach to stop him from killing not only his cousin, but Uzumaki Naruto as well and requested to the Hokage to strip him as well as Tenten's status as Shinobi due to her nearly killing Aburame Shino but to his shock, the Hokage had dismissed his request.

"I am serious Gai-san; I cannot comply with your request," the Sandaime said with a frown on his face.

Gai looked ready to object but the Sandaime decided to explain. "When Kakashi-san, Asuma-san and Kurenai-san as well as yourself requested the mission, you four stated that those three would encounter their respective targets and I quote "Fight them with the intent to kill" And much as I want to strip them of their careers for trying to kill their comrades and my surrogate Grandson, I can't. They only followed their orders."

"Hokage-sama, Hyūga-san and Hayabusa-san try and kill Aburame-san, Uzumaki-kun and Hyūga-sama out of pure spite! They should not be allowed to continue their careers!" Gai exclaimed with anger in his eyes, something the Hokage had never seen before in this normally goofy man.

"Maito-san, I understand your concerns, I do but you four ordered them to follow orders. I will however send them to Ibiki-san as well as bring in Hiashi-sama and Saika-san to discuss their actions," The Sandaime said with neutral tone in his voice.

"Hokage-sama, I do not know about Hayabusa-san but I know Hyūga-san will try this again if his earlier actions were to be taken into account. We must end this before things get worse for not only Hyūga-sama, but for anyone that tries to protect her and one of those people could very well be your 'grandson'. Please consider my words…But until then Hokage-sama, I cannot have these two on my team any longer from their extreme unyouthful actions…" Gai said softly, sitting down at the elder's desk.

"Then what do you suggest Gai-san?"

Gai took a deep breath…At first, unwilling to say it but he soon found the courage and said "I wish for Hayabusa Tenten and Hyūga Neji to be removed from Team 9."

* * *

**_Konoha Hospital_**

"N-Naruto-kun, you should really let the n-nurses do her j-job," Hinata murmured softly as she watched Naruto trying desperately to get to the window to escape his fate but was being held back by the hands of ten nurses and one doctor. What was Naruto trying to escape from you wonder?

A shot.

Ever since Naruto was little, getting a shot terrified Naruto to the point of him screaming bloody murder. Normally, he would've been able to escape his fate like he had many times before but this time, he was suffering from three broken ribs as well as exhaustion from but still he was determined to escape, no matter how futile it was.

He was glad that Hinata was here with him instead of everyone else because unlike Hinata, those goons he called 'friends' would be laughing their asses off watching this. Especially Kiba and Ino so that's why when they came to see him at the hospital (After the doctors took the two teams' wounded opponents); he forced all of them except Hinata to stay out of the room until they both deemed it was right to send them in.

Waiting outside of Naruto's hospital room was the two groups that had set out to find the two people that were in the room. They were team Shino and Team Kiba but what surprised them was that team Kiba's opponent was waiting along with them. The two teams learned that their fighter's name was Rock Lee.

At first, the two teams wanted Lee to leave because they felt that he was the cause of Naruto and Hinata's injuries as well as Team Kiba's injuries but despite his own injuries, he kneeled to them and deeply apologized for his actions but the two teams were still wary of him until three people they quickly recognized as Jōnins appeared.

The Jōnin with long black hair, stunning red eyes, a red and white dress and luscious red lips stepped forward and said "You shouldn't blame him for what happened." Ino stared at the beautiful woman and asked "Why shouldn't we? He attacked Forehead's team. Why should we trust him after that?"

The Jōnin with the black beard, standard Jōnin uniform except form the white sash on his waist stepped forward and replied "You'll find out why in a few so sit tight."

Ino put her hands on her hips and asked "And why should we listen to you?" The red eyed woman looked at her and simply said "Because we are Jōnins. You're superiors." And with that, the two teams grudgingly listened to their superiors silently.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Hinata_**

After the deed was done, Naruto and Hinata sat alone in Naruto's hospital room in complete silence, taking this time to think about what they went through during Neji's attack.

Hinata looked at Naruto's eyes with a crestfallen look on her face before she looked down at the ground. She was feeling deeply ashamed of herself for not only bowing at her cousin's feet in complete surrender but for letting herself get caught by said cousin to stop Naruto's rampage but what she didn't know was that Naruto was ashamed of himself as well.

He had lost control of himself after seeing Hinata's cousin torment her in the worst way, he wasn't even able to protect her when Neji held her captive. It tore him apart when he saw her looking at him helplessly and it only made him feel guiltier every time he thought back on it.

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other, a nervous glance on each of their faces before they both shouted "Hinata-chan/N-Naruto-kun, I'm sorry!" The two looked up at each other with a surprised look on their faces and asked "Why are you apologizing/a-apologizing?" Naruto lifted up his hand to stop Hinata from speaking and said "I'm apologizing because I couldn't defend you when it matter most…I tried, I truly did but it wasn't enough…" Naruto looked down at the ground when he was down explaining only to feel soft hands on his cheeks.

Naruto let the hands lift his face up and saw Hinata smiling down sadly at him. "I-It wasn't your f-fault Naruto-k-kun. It's m-my fault." Hinata sat down in front of the blond haired boy and moved her hands so it was in his hands, sporting a small blush on her face.

"I let N-Neji-san get t-the best of m-me. I w-wasn't strong e-enough to shake off h-his words like y-you were. I j-just stood there w-when y-you fought h-him a-and I l-let him grab m-me, making y-you lose your f-focus. M-Maybe Neji-s-san was right, I am weak!" Hinata screamed out near the end as bitter tears fell from her eyes.

She didn't even realize that Naruto had pulled her into his chest until he felt his arms wrap around her and when she did, she wrapped her arms around him, nuzzling her head into his chest.

"You're the strongest girl I know Hinata-chan, you could never be useless. Please don't let his spiteful words work their way into your heart because they aren't true. Please believe that Hinata-chan."

She heard Naruto whisper in her ear as he rubbed her back soothingly, making her smile at the soft movement but the tears still fell from her eyes. She didn't want to believe that because she thought it was all true but the moment she looked into his caring eyes, all of her self-doubts and resentment towards herself melted away.

Hinata then did something that would cause her to faint later on that night. Leaning close, she placed a small peck on Naruto's cheek, causing him to blink in shock before a large blush overtook his face. She let her soft lips linger on his right cheek before slowly pulling away, murmuring "T-Thank you f-for fighting for m-me…"

Just then, the door busted open to reveal Kiba and Ino, both of them shouting as they entered "I can't take it anymore!"

Naruto and Hinata split apart as if the other was on fire and to Ino and Kiba's eternal happiness, each were sporting a gigantic blush on their faces. "Well, I didn't know we were interrupting something," Ino said with a mock tone of innocence in her voice.

Smirking, Kiba slung his arm over the female blonde's shoulder and smirked at the two before adding "Maybe that was why we were waiting for so long."

Naruto and surprisingly Hinata glared at the two laughing at them before a mischievous look appeared on Naruto's face before he asked "When did you two get so chummy around each other?" It was Kiba and Ino's turn to split apart as if the other was on fire, a dark scowl planted on their faces but unknown to everyone but Hinata, there was a faint blush on both of their faces.

That's when Naruto noticed that in between the chuckling duo of Shikamaru and Chōji and the stoic Aburame was Rock Lee who he tilted his head at in confusion. "Hey, who are you," He also took notice of the two Jōnins behind the bushy-browed teen. "And who are they?"

The laughing quickly stopped as a look of seriousness appeared on the two teams' faces. In all of the teasing, they had forgotten why they were here in the first place. Ino huffed in realization and turned to the two Adults that were standing behind the wounded boy with her hands on her hips and said "We would like some answers now."

* * *

**_Hokage Tower_**

"Are you sure you want to do this Gai?" The Hokage asked softly at the forlorn sensei of Team 9. He knew that Gai didn't want to do this but he felt in his heart that is was the right choice to make.

"Yes…After these events, mission or not, I cannot condone what they have done. Hayabusa-san and Hyūga-san let their personal feelings get into their mission."

"But what about Lee?" Gai's head snapped up as Kakashi suddenly appeared into the room, his orange book **not** in his hands this time, which was a rare sight to see. "He came at them with the intent to kill as well. Why not banish him out of your team?" Gai looked back at Kakashi with a frown on his face.

"Lee-kun fought them but he did not let his personal feelings get involved in the mission nor did he try to kill them as the mission perimeters said. He fought to incapacitate them," Gai replied with a sigh.

Kakashi decided that for the moment, he was going to let Gai off the hook and looked at the Hokage and asked "Hokage-sama. With your permission, I would like to know what will happen to Hayabusa-san and Hyūga-san."

The Hokage took a puff of his pipe and replied "Well, they would be sent to Ibiki then after that they both will receive massive punishments from myself and their guardians and if they are deemed to continue to be shinobi, they would be put on the reserves until a team has an opening for them to join."

"Hokage-sama, Hayabusa-san and Hyūga-san are two gifted Shinobi who's skills shouldn't go to waste…May I suggest something to both you and Gai-san?" hearing his name, Gai looked up at Kakashi with a questioning glance with the Hokage following suit. "Oh? What about Kakashi-san?"

Kakashi let a small smile grace his lips.

"Well, I have an idea that benefit all of us…"

* * *

**_Konoha hospital_**

"Well?" Ino asked after a few minutes of silence, quite annoyed at the fact that these pair of Jōnins couldn't even answer her question. Sakura snorted and rolled her eyes at Ino's rudeness but at the same time, she wondered as well.

Why did she and her friends (go through all of this when all she wanted to do was to find her two friends and return to the academy? What was the point in all of it?

The two Jōnins looked at each other and stared at the group that decided to sit on and around the bed Naruto and Hinata (Much to her joy and embarrassment) were lying on before the bearded Jōnin took a step forward and said "Before we answer any questions, we would like to introduce ourselves. My name is Sarutobi Asuma and this is my partner Yūhi Kurenai and we are Jōnins of Kohonagakure no Sato and we are al-

"Can you get on with it already?" Ino interrupted irritably, wanting to get this out of the way so they can finally get some answers to this already confusing and frustrating day. Asuma and Kurenai shared an equal look of annoyance at the young girl's crude interruption and vowed to break of her this habit but before Asuma had a chance to continue where he left off, Kurenai lifted up her hand, saying "I'll handle this."

She then turned her attention to the kids in the room and said "On the exception of Lee and Sakura, The two of us share the title as of Sensei to all of you," while Sakura frowned and Naruto looked in confusion when Kurenai said this, the others were surprised by this.

Shino and Shikamaru quickly connected the dots in their head and looked at each other, both of their right eyebrows raised in thought. They both assumed that every team in this village at least only had the limit of four members in each cell with three genin as the students and one Jōnin as the team leader but a pair of Jōnins leading a team of seven? It was unheard of.

"Wait a second," Naruto suddenly interrupted the look of confusion still on his face. "Does that mean I'm on your team too?"

Kurenai and Asuma shared another look but this look was one of confusion "Yes. Kurenai did say that, did she not?" Asuma answered with his right eyebrow raised in confusion.

"B-but Iruka-sensei said that since I was promoted too late and the team assignments were already set in stone, I would have to wait until another team was ready" Naruto explained while looking down at the covers that covered the bottom half of his body.

Hinata noticed his confused and sad face and touched his hand softly, staring at him with concern and care in her eyes. Naruto looked at her and gave her a reassuring smile while touching her hand in return, making her smile gently. Lee and Kiba shared a look of confusion while the Sakura and Ino silently swooned at the sight.

Kurenai nodded softly while turning her head to look at Asuma, putting the pieces together in her mind with a surprised look on her face. Asuma looked back at her and followed her line of thinking before smirking in realization as well as amusement, making Kurenai smack his arm lightly but with a small smile on her face.

"Naruto, normally Iruka would have been correct. You would've had to wait until another team graduated from the academy but last night, Me and Asuma-san wanted you to join our team and since he couldn't decide who's team you should be on, he combined our teams together so you would be able on be on both and since The Sandaime made this decision on the fly, they didn't have a chance to let Iruka know of the change of team assignments, resulting in this entire mess"

Both of Naruto's eyes widened in surprise after hearing Kurenai's explanation with a smile slowly forming on his face. The Hokage put two teams together just to put him on a team. He didn't know what to say. "So…I'm really on a team?" Naruto asked once more, just to make sure this wasn't a prank.

Hinata looked at her best friend and grabbed both of his hands boldly and said "Y-Yes you are!" Naruto looked at her for a moment before something clicked in his head. Not only was he on a team, he was on the team with his best friend. His smile grew wider as he pulled her into a hug, which she eagerly returned, putting the pieces together also.

Sakura and Ino went 'Aww' while Kiba and Chōji whooped happily. Shikamaru and Shino simply shared a look that spelt out "Troublesome" while Lee nodded his head with a small smile on his face.

Ino suddenly looked at the two Jōnins with a critical eye, realizing they had gotten off topic and decided to ruin the moment by saying "Well now that we settled that issue, can we please get back to why he attacked forehead's team and why that girl attacked ours as well as explaining why Naruto is in the hospital in the first place." Everyone sobered up quickly after Ino's questions and stared at the two Jōnins.

"Perhaps I can answer that…" A voice suddenly said out of nowhere, startling all of the kids there while also annoying the adults. Kakashi suddenly appeared next to the window with his trademark orange book in his hands, making Kurenai, Ino, Sakura and Hinata look wearily at him.

"You're late, as usual" Asuma muttered with annoyed frown on his face, his urge for a cigarette growing.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to deal with something between me and Gai" Kakashi explained with a serious tone in his voice, Letting Kurenai and Asuma know that he was serious about the reason why he was late. "What was it about?" Kurenai asked with a curious tone in her voice. "A new team arrangement which I'm glad you two (points to Sakura and Lee) Are here because this involves you two."

Sakura and Lee looked at each other with confusion written on their faces but before anyone could say anything, Ino jumped up off of her chair and shouted comically "Please! Just tell us why we had to fight Lee and those other two people before I lose it!"

The Three Jōnin looked at each other and with a sigh; Kakashi covered his face and began to explain. "Alright, I'll only say this once so listen up. When genins first graduate out of the academy, their sensei must give them a test. Now this test is 66.6% percent of failure. A lot of those genin you saw back in your classroom? Only three teams out of that entire class would be able to become shinobi."

The entire room (Except Lee and the jōnins) gasped in surprise of this new information. They never knew that. Kakashi ignored the gasps and continued "The test the genins must pass varies from sensei to sensei but they all have to involve one thing, Teamwork. Now, we were going to have the tests tomorrow but since Naruto and Hinata ran off and all of you planned to follow him, it gave us the perfect opportunity to give you the test then."

Shino and Shikamaru stared at Kakashi and let a small smirk form on their faces, realizing where this was going. It was rather ingenious to say the least. But while those two understood where it was going, Sakura didn't and voiced this by asking "So what does Lee have to do with it?"

The three Jōnin looked at each other and through a eye contact, Asuma decided that he would be the one that would answer the question. "Kakashi decided that in order to see how your well you self-made teams were able to work together so, he went to the Hokage and scrapped together a mission in which Lee's team, who was there at the time giving the Hokage their mission debriefing accepted it hastily. The mission was that they were to challenge all of you to a fight and use deadly force to not only see if your teamwork was top notch but to also see how strong your will to survive was and to our surprise, all of you did very well."

Asuma stopped to grin at the group of genins and continued "All of you worked well together and managed to defeat your opponents and for that, you all passed the test. From this moment on, you all are shinobi of Kohonagakure no Sato."

The entire group of shinobi cheered in excitement and happiness but Shikamaru raised his hand. "Question, say we believe your story, how did Lee-san and his team get dressed in those attires so quickly? I mean, not counting the battles we all had, We were only out there for an hour and thirty minutes. It makes no sense."

"I can answer that," Lee said with a bright smile. "You see, before we accepted this mission, we had just returned from a mission where we were spying on a crime lord that used the clothes we were wearing for his guards. Green for standard foot soldiers, Pink for weapon users and archers and Silver for his top Bodyguards."

"That explains that…." Shikamaru said with a cross of his arms but then his mind went back to the battle with Pink and looked to Shino and asked "But that doesn't explain why Pink was so dead set in defeating/killing you Shino or how you knew her to begin with or…"He then looked at Ino. "How you acquired those skills."

"Ino? Skills? Those don't go together in a sentence," Kiba said with a grin, only for Ino to smack him hard in the head, causing him to slam his head on the iron bar in front of him. "Ow damn it!"

"Well Mr. Shadow user, if you must know" Ino started out, staring at Shikamaru. "Remember that sparring class we had before break?" Shikamaru nodded.

"Well, after me and Hinata had sparred, Iruka-sensei pulled me to the side and said that next to forehead, I was pitiful in almost every aspect of being a shinobi except in genjutsu and my family's jutsu so after that, I went to my mom for training since she was a shinobi before she retired. She had taught me her family's taijutsu. Even though she says I've come along since I first started, I'm still a beginner…"

Shikamaru nodded at her and then turned to Shino, wanting an answer to his question but Shino simply turned his head towards the window and said "Me and "Pink"…We have some history together. I don't want to go into it at this time so please desist with your questions Nara-san," Shikamaru nodded, accepting that.

"Now," Kakashi suddenly interrupted with his hand held in the air, telling the kids to basically "Shut up and listen", "While all of you passed the test for your teamwork, Naruto and Hinata passed for another reason." Naruto and Hinata looked at Kakashi in confusion, wondering why he would single them out like this.

"From what Gai told us, Naruto, you went into a complete rage and later surrendered to protect his teammate from potentially getting killed and Hinata, you took a rather painful blow to protect his unconscious body from getting further injury which could have potentially killed him as well. That shows me that you two would never abandon each other at any cost and that is why you two passed as well"

Naruto and Hinata blushed at that praise that Kakashi gave them as well as the looks of amusement from their friends. "Now, I want you all to take an example from those two and have each other's back at any costs because those who breaks the rules are trash…But those who turns their backs on their comrades are worse than trash," Kakashi recited with a serious look in his eye.

The young group of shinobi looked at each other nodded before all of them bowed to the three jōnin as a 'thank you' but Sakura realized that Kakashi had forgotten to tell her and Lee something and reminded him by saying "Kakashi-sensei, You had something to tell Lee and I?" Kakashi's eye widened in surprise at forgetting this but he gave them an eye smile, visibly mellowing out once more.

"That's right. Originally, Sakura was going to be on my team along with Ikari-san and Uchiha-san but due to Gai's earlier decision and disappointment in two of his students, that has changed" Lee's face twisted in confusion when he heard this but he decided to keep quiet to finish hearing what his sensei's 'eternal rival' had to say.

"Therefore as of today, Hyūga Neji and Hayabusa Tenten are to be placed with me and Uchiha Sasuke while you, Haruno Sakura will be placed on team nine's team along with Ikari Shinji and Rock Lee!"

* * *

**_Hyūga Neji_**

"Do you know why you are here?"

Neji let a harsh growl leave his lips as he stood before his uncle, Hyūga Hiashi without his shirt, his caged bird seal bare before the man with his arms bound around the tree around him.

"I do, Hiashi-sama," Neji responded calmly. "I attempted to do what the elders passed down to us about our clan and how it deals with traitors." Neji felt the seal on his head activate, causing an intense pain in his head while something hard and cutting struck his back, causing him to want to scream but he bit it back, not wanting to show weakness before those he despised.

"You are here because you tried to kill my daughter and Uzumaki Naruto. Clan rules or not, I will not condone nor forgive your actions for your transgressions. What you felt just now is your punishment," Hiashi said as he gripped the two chains that was wrapped around his hands that fell down to the ground below him.

"I will tell you this now nephew, This will not be an easy punishment. For three hours a day, I will have your seal active while whipping you with these chains. There is a strong chance you can die but because you are my nephew, I will not let it get to that point but I will make sure you get close enough to understand your mistakes….Prepare yourself because there will be no mercy for what you have done..."

* * *

Rain: And that's all for this chapter! Right now, I have some homework for you guys. I want you guys to check out my other story **_Legend of Dragoon: Dragoons of Konoha Reborn_**. If you guys like the premise of this story, you guys will enjoy that one and hey, If you guys like Mass Effect, check out my fic **_Mass Effect: Melody from the Past_**. Until the next chapter

Mario: See you next time.


	7. Chapter 7

Rain: Hello everyone, I'm Rain and this is the newest chapter of **_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero _**and this newest chapter will be a little more softer than the last few chapters so enjoy the show!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Seven_**

It had been a two weeks since the bombshell at the hospital and it sent shockwaves through Konoha. The first obvious shockwave was the face that on the exception of Sasuke, The team of Kurenai and Asuma had six heirs in their possession.

That in itself wasn't heard of but the second shockwave was that the pariah of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto was the seventh member of the genin strike force and while %85 of the shinobi force didn't care at all about this, the remaining percent as well as all of the civilians were horrified at the fact that the curse of the village was so close to the future leaders of their village.

But none of group cared about what those people thought.

A few days after Naruto healed, the first thing Kurenai and Asuma did when their team was together was work on their team's teamwork despite all of them having a good understanding of it but Asuma and Kurenai knew that they needed to refine it until each member could work together with another without fail. And with that came the bane of all shinobi...

**D-Rank Missions.**

At first, Naruto and Kiba were horrified at the fact that they would have to do chores despite being shinobi. They felt that this was demeaning to them and while the older shinobi couldn't help but agree with the youth but they explained that D-ranks were important to the village, which caused the two genin to swallow the bitter pill and await their assignment but that's when Kurenai decided to tell them they each of them were being paired up with another person and taking their own separate D-rank mission.

Kurenai had looked at the seven people and decided paired them off with the people they had never worked with.

Naruto was paired with Shino.

Hinata was paired with Chōji.

Which meant, to Shikamaru's Kiba's and Ino's horror that they were paired with each other but while Kiba and Ino hated it that they were on the same team, Shikamaru immediately thought this will be very troublesome….But before he knew it, things got worse when Kurenai began to hand them their missions.

"Alright Naruto and Shino, you two will go to every training ground and bring lunch for the other genin cells…" Shino and Naruto gave each other a look and nodded. They knew it wasn't going to be easy but they knew that they might have gotten the best deal out of all of them.

"Hinata and Chōji, you three will go to the Sarutobi household and watch the Hokage's grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru. Ebisu, Konohamaru's normal guardian had caught the flu from his wife so he will be gone for the remainder of the week."

The two looked at each other and shared a smile. They thought this would be easy but they didn't realize that the Hokage gave a small gulp at that mission.

"And as for you three…" Asuma said, taking the last scroll from Kurenai, grinning softly at her then frowning at his students. "You three will be catching Tora."

Kiba paled at this. "No!" He exclaimed with horror etched on his face.

"Aww, is little Kiba afraid of a little wittle kitty?" Ino mocked with a laugh while Kiba's face grew hot with embarrassment and anger. It wasn't as if he was afraid of cats, it was just this cat he was afraid of due to an incident when he was younger that he would love to forget.

"Let's just go catch that damn thing…" Kiba muttered angrily as he stalked out the office with a laughing Ino and a frowning Shikamaru trailing behind him and with a "See ya Ojii-san," from Naruto, Shino and Naruto left a few minutes later then with a bow from Hinata towards her senseis and the Hokage, she also took her leave with her teammate.

"Do you think this is wise Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asked her leader with an unsure look. Not because she didn't think they could handle it but because she wasn't sure that Kiba or Ino would come back with their partner intact, even with Shikamaru there and the fact of Naruto and Shino's mission...Asuma knew why she had asked that and also shared her concern but he had a feeling they would all be ok and the Hokage shared that sentiment.

"Do not worry Kurenai-san, they will be ok. Besides, these are simple D-rank missions. What could happen under our watchful eyes?" With that being said, Sarutobi smiled as he pulled out his crystal ball and motioned for the two Jōnins to watch with him and the first thing they saw was Kiba chasing Ino, shouting "Get back here you annoying ass blonde!" with Shikamaru running after the two of them.

The crystal ball then changed to Konohamaru rigging up the mansion and his room.

And finally, The scene changed to Naruto running to Ichikaru's with Shino walking behind him.

Asuma and Kurenai merely sighed while the Hokage merely chuckled.

Well...Even the Hokage could get it wrong sometimes.

* * *

**_Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba and Yamanaka Ino_**

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched as he stood in between Kiba and Ino, both genin traded hateful looks at each other. He didn't know exactly how much he could take. They were out of the Hokage Tower five minutes and already, Ino has annoyed Kiba enough to get him going and now they were in a stare down.

"Look," Shikamaru said to the two with a small frown. 'We need to work together to catch Tora…So please, stop this nonsensical bickering and let's get started."

Kiba and Ino merely looked at the Nara then rolled their eyes and pushed him back while saying "Get real! Like I would work with puppy chow/miss piggy," before the two blinked at the name the other called them, causing their hateful stare down to renew, causing Shikamaru to pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

Was this how Iruka-sensei felt?

Suddenly, Akamaru plopped out of Kiba's jacket and began to growl with his eyes opened and narrowed, causing the three of them to look down at him. "What's up Akamaru?" Kiba asked while leaning down to his partner's side, petting his head in concern but Akamaru began to growl more before darting down into an alleyway, surprising the three genin.

"Come on, we have to go!" Kiba exclaimed before moving away from them with a panicked expression on his face. Shikamaru and Ino merely glanced at each other before dashing off after the small pup and his owner but a few moments later, Kiba came flying out of the alleyway with Akamaru behind him, screaming in terror as a cat was attached to his face.

"Get it off of me!"

**_Akimichi Chōji and Hyūga Hinata _**

"The Honorable grandson is right in this room."

Chōji and Hinata nodded and thanked the shinobi that led them into the room where they saw, who they assumed was the Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru sitting by the window with a sad expression on his face. Sharing a glance, the two shinobi walked towards the boy and once they got close, Hinata placed a hand on his shoulder and said "Konohamaru-k-kun?"

The small boy looked up at her with sad eyes and nodded, asking "Yeah? Who are you?" With a small voice.

Hinata merely smiled and answered "My n-name is Hyūga H-Hinata and this is my friend, Akimichi C-Chōji and we're here to watch you for today…" Hearing his name, Chōji lifted up his hand in a small but happy wave.

Konohamaru looked from Chōji back to Hinata and gave a small smile, asking "So you guys are going with me to have fun?" with a hopeful tone in his voice.

Seeing him smile caused Hinata and Chōji to smile as well but the moment they nodded, Konohamaru's smile changed into a smirk as he suddenly leapt up from his seat and pulled out a large water gun, saying "Then let's have some fun!" before water was shot at the two shinobi, causing them to splutter in surprise.

Seeing them distracted, Konohamaru smirked and slid through Hinata's spread legs and ran past Chōji and ran out of the room, yelling "Catch me if you can!"

Soaking wet, Chōji and Hinata glanced at each other with a sense of dread forming on their faces.

This…Was going to be difficult.

Taking a breath, the two man team ran out of the room after the Hokage's grandson but as they left the room and turned the corner, two banana cream pies were slammed into their faces without warning, causing the surprised duo to step back and wipe the cream from their face.

"Tag!" Konohamaru's voice rang out throughout the mansion.

And that sense of dread increased.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto and Aburame Shino_**

"Uzumaki-san, I truly suggest we get a move on. The other teams may be waiting for their lunches," Shino murmured to his partner for this mission, inwardly sighing as Naruto seemingly ignored him to continue to inhale more of the sweet deliciousness of Ichikaru's ramen with his familiar foxy smile.

The two had stopped by a restaurant to pick up a few lunches that the Hokage had ordered for all of the squads and so far, the two of them had delivered to every squad in the village except for two and that was when Naruto spotted Ichikaru's and had to get some which was wasting Shino's time at but at the same time, Shino was glad for this diversion.

He knew that he and Naruto would have to deliver to two more teams but it wasn't Team Gai that concerned him. It was team Seven or as he and Naruto had heard most of the villagers call them, "Team Legacy" and while he had some issues with Neji and Sasuke, The main issue was with the female member of the team.

_'Tenten…'_ He thought with a bitter sigh. He knew that she would hate him now than she did before and the thought of it tore his heart in half.

_'If only I had been more aware…Then it would have never happened…'_ He thought to himself solemnly as his hands turned into fists in his pockets, his high collar covering the dark scowl on his face and his glasses covering the anger and remorse in his eyes but then he relaxed when Naruto's eyes were on him and for a moment, Shino felt as if Naruto had sensed his anger but then the orange wearing teen returned to his meal, making Shino sigh out in relief, inwardly of course.

Little did he know, Naruto's mind was on the same issue his mind was on…Just an entirely different teammate.

_ 'Neji…'_ Naruto thought with a growl on his face.

Ever since their battle on that life changing day, all he could think about was initiating another fight against that smug Hyūga until he managed to beat him due to the pain Neji had put himself and Hinata through but he couldn't do that just yet.

Neji was stronger, faster and smarter than he was so he needed to develop that same edge and maybe he would be able to challenge and defeat the Hyūga prodigy but then his mind changed to another Hyūga.

_'Hinata-Chan…' _Naruto thought before a small little blush form on his face when he thought of the lavender eyed girl. Despite how things quickly went bad on that day, the only high point of it was finding his best friend again but lately, he couldn't look at her and when he did, his face would heat up which would somehow cause her face to heat up as well if she caught him shyly glancing at her

He knew it had something to do with the fact things got far too close despite reuniting that same day but there had to be something deeper but unlike how he would usually rush into things head first, he decided to wait it out to see what the hell was going on with him before he would act on it.

He then shook his head and let out a "Bah," before placing his money by the tower of empty ramen bowls and hopping off of the stool and land in front of Shino to give his foxy smile.

"Sorry about the wait Shino, I just had to get my stomach out of the way," Naruto explained with a pat to said belly, feeling more content than before.

"It is…quite alright Uzumaki-san now we must get a move on. We only have Team 7 and 10 left before we complete our mission," Naruto nodded in agreement and with that, the two of them walked away from the ramen stand but as they walked to Team Gai's training ground, the two members of Team Zero stopped as they came face to face with a beat up looking Team Legacy.

The air suddenly grew very cold.

"Well, Hello you two," Kakashi said with a bright eye smile, completely aware of the change of atmosphere.

"How are you two doing on this fine sunny day?"

Naruto and Shino had heard what the Jōnin had said but they didn't respond due to the intense stare down they were currently engaged in. "We were doing pretty good Kakashi-san…" Naruto responded while his blue eyes staring into Neji's narrowed silver ones before turning to Sasuke's onyx ones.

"You were eh? Is that because of us?" Tenten asked the blond in a humorless tone while keeping her beautiful chocolate eyes glaring hatefully into Shino's covered ones, If she could see his eyes however, she would have seen that they gazed at her with sorrow swimming in them.

"Well…Not because of you personally, just the company you have Tenten-san," Naruto replied, only for Neji to step towards him, which caused him to do the same.

"You want to say something, loser?" Neji asked with a cold edge in his voice.

"Say? Now that's a funny word because when I see you, there's something I want to do, not say," Naruto answered with a wild grin, his fists clenched tightly.

He knew he couldn't take Neji like this but with him standing right in front of him pushed that thought out of his mind. All he wanted, all he **needed** was to defeat what he considered a threat to not only him, but to Hinata as well but then Sasuke stepped forward while saying "Now, now Dope, don't go picking fights you can't win."

Anger was now coursing through Naruto's veins as he stared at the last Uchiha "What the hell did you just say Bastard?"

The Uchiha smirked and repeated what he said but with an edge in his voice which caused Naruto's anger to slowly increase until his entire attention was on the Uchiha. Now while he knew he could not take on Neji, he was perfectly aware that he could fight Sasuke and very well beat him, Rookie of the year or not.

"Then how about I take you on Sasuke-teme," Naruto replied only for Sasuke to smirk and step forward while Neji merely watched this in amusement.

"Oh, look at the balls on you, Dope. First you challenge the Hyūga prodigy and now you want to challenge the Uchiha prodigy? Either way, you have no chance in defeating us."

Seeing Naruto being double teamed, Shino slide next to him and faced Sasuke and said with a calm, stoic voice "And if he's not alone?"

"How cute, the losers are sticking together," Sasuke sneered at the bug user, his eyes narrowing while Shino's merely raised his eyebrow, not noticing Tenten's eyes gazing at his back with a frown forming on her face.

_'This…This seems familiar somehow'_ she thought to herself as she stared at Naruto standing inches behind Shino and for a split moment, she saw a small girl with flowing brown hair standing behind a slightly taller boy with a large afro, his glasses bright from the sun sans his jacket, which the small brunette had on her but then a bitter scowl formed on her face.

Sasuke and Shino stared at each other for a moment but then he heard Kakashi say "Now team, let's head out and leave these two be," Sasuke and Neji spared Shino and Naruto one last look before nodding with their sensei's request and walked away from the two but both Naruto and Shino noticed that Tenten remained but instead of saying anything to Shino, she looked towards Naruto and asked him if she could speak to him.

Naruto and Shino stared at her then at each other before Naruto shrugged and said "Sure," before the two walked away from the Aburame.

Once the two were far enough, Tenten told Naruto "Listen, I know that Shino helped you back there and as his teammate, he will but don't put any trust in him Naruto because sooner or later…He's going to betray you and when he does, he'll make sure it's a wound that will never…**ever** go away," Naruto looked confused by this and asked her why.

She merely stared at him for a moment before shaking her head, a haunted look in her eyes which then turned to a burning hatred as she turned her eyes to Shino, who was still standing in the spot they had left him in before her eyes turned back to Naruto and answered with "Sometimes, things are better left in the shadows….But be wary of him Naruto…"

And with that, she jogged off after her team, leaving Naruto to watch her retreating form in wonder before turning back to the Aburame who he could sense sadness washing over him but not a lot.

What had happened between them?

* * *

Rain: Well, it seems like things have gotten a bit deeper between two members of Team Zero and Team Victory. What will happen in the next chapter? Find out next time. Till next time.

Mario: See you next time!


	8. Chapter 8

Rain: And here I am with a brand new chapter! I decided for this one to focus more on Shino and Tenten since I'll be building up on their rivalry a lot but after this, I will also start forming the friendship between the teammates as well as the romance between some of them as well. Well let's get to it everyone!

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Eight: Of Heartache and Bitterness_**

"Shino…What happened between you and Tenten?"

Shino turned his head to face Naruto and let a small sigh leave his lips. He knew that whatever Tenten had told his partner for this mission would get the blond boy to ask that question but how could he answer it? This issue had been buried within his heart for six long years and he didn't want to unearth it just yet.

"I…I can't go into it Uzumaki-san. It is my burden…And I will not put anyone else within it…" Shino said as he walked away from the orange wearing shinobi but as he walked away, he could Naruto's voice behind him.

"Shino! But whatever this issue is, it's bugging you….no pun intended!" Shino merely turned around to see hopeful blue eyes staring back at him and then he merely sighed. This was one of the reasons he never really wanted to hang out with the blond boy before they became teammates.

It's those eyes.

It's like they wanted him to spill his history and considering how much Naruto has been able to pry out information from Iruka-sensei to figure out his newest prank, he could now understand the older chūnin's pain. But still, he had kept this secret for years and while his father and mother tried to bury it out of their minds, they didn't realize that he was drowning in the secrecy.

_"Shino! Get out of here!"_

Shino squinted his eyes behind his glasses in an effort to muffle the voice of that man that constantly forced its way to the forefront of his mind. "S-Shino?" Shino opened his eyes to see Naruto's worried eyes and realized that his kikkai were so aggravated, that Naruto could hear them.

He had to calm down.

He needed to think.

_Flashes of small brown eyes filled with hate as the words "I hate you!" left her mouth-_

Shino took a harsh breath while saying "I-I'm fine Uzumaki-san…I just need to be alone," Before running off from his teammate. He may have been able to tell Naruto that he was fine but in reality, he was far from fine at this point.

Those memories!

There were forcing themselves into his sight.

Into his mind!

_"Shino-kun…I like you…"_

Why did she come back into his life?

She had left it so long ago so why return?!

_"I'm surprised you of all people are here..."_

_When he looked through the eye holes in her mask, he could feel the intense glare coming from her chocolate brown eyes. _

_"Aburame…" she whispered his name in such a dark and disrespecting tone, it made Shino almost flinch…Almost. With a violent push, the two disengaged and the two took a few steps back to give each other some room._

_Shino watched as she readjusted her Kodachi into her right hand as she moved her left hand behind her back and pulled another kodachi into his view and with a frown, he watched her twirl it in her left hand before pointing it straight at him._

_"This time…Only one of us will walk out of here…" She said with an ice tone in her voice. _

_Shino pulled out another kunai and gripped them both in his hands with a look of determination on his face. _

_"Understood."_

She should have just stayed out of his life!

_"Hey Buggy-kun? I love you!"_

In a rare display of anger, Shino twisted his body and rammed his fist into a wooden post before turning his body and sliding down it and placing his head in his head.

He had kept it hidden for so long.

The smiles.

The laughter.

The hugs.

Even their first kiss.

He kept all of this hidden from himself since the _"Incident"_ but the moment she showed up, she unwound his mind and heart. He didn't know how much he could take from her anymore. Maybe Naruto was right, he should talk to someone about it but the one person that was willing to listen, he had ran from to hide from his problems.

He needed time to re-think.

Time to hide away the torment in his mind.

And his heart.

"But how? How can I get it to be the way it was?" Shino asked himself, a lost tone in his voice.

He asked this to himself but he knew the answer.

There was no way he was going to get everything the way it used to be.

But he would move heaven and earth to do it.

No matter what it took.

* * *

**_Hayabusa Tenten_**

"I saw him again today Father…" Tenten said with restrained anger within her voice as she sat in front of a large wooden maple brown alter where tons of candles were lit, causing the dark room she was in to glow a soft orange.

In the middle of the alter was a picture of a man with long, spiky flowing brown hair that seemed to defy gravity as it hovered in the air and away from his head which was going to the left along with brown bangs that fell across the right side of his face, a brown goatee, a yellow kimono with a black trim that he had the right side of his chest showing his right arm out of it, leaving the right sleeve dangling in the wind with both arms having white wrapping on them.

And on the left his side of his body was two katana that was hanging from his left hip as well as four more blades resting on the back of his hips, each one varying in size but the final sword he had was a large sword that he had sheathed on his back but on his left shoulder was a five year old Tenten, wearing a small pink dress and undone brown hair.

Beneath the picture, the name of "Hayabusa Yoshitora" was etched into the black frame inside of a golden plate. "That pathetic Aburame… Appearing back in my life like this…I…I thought I was done with him after that day…But here he is…" Tenten said to the picture frame as anger appeared.

"It was like he forgot everything that happened between us…He should never forget what he put me and mother through since that day…But you know what's worse…Despite being so furious at seeing him, I saw him defend that kid Naruto. At least that hasn't changed but I did warn the blond to not trust him and I hope he takes my advice…I wouldn't want him to go through the betrayal that I went…that I **am** going through…"

The bitterness in her voice couldn't stop from showing as she said those final words.

She hated Aburame Shino with all that she had.

He took her father away from him.

He took her mother's husband from her which caused her to fall into a deep depression.

He took her smile.

Her laughter.

Her soul.

And even her first kiss.

And then he did something that really hurt her.

Then the most recent thing he took from her was Maito Gai.

Gai was her father's closest friend before his end and Gai had become her father figure. Even her mother, who was still hurting from the loss of her father, was becoming more interested in the strange man who had practically forced himself in their life to the point that they began to love his presence but because of that stupid mission, he looked at her in shame in disappointment.

She didn't want a man that she viewed as a second father to look at her with those eyes and hate her. All she wanted to do was get him to love her again as her surrogate daughter and as his pupil…And knowing that he wouldn't do that caused her hatred for Shino to grow even more.

She wasn't stupid however.

Tenten knew she had stepped out of bounds when she fought Shino and the other two people but it was in the mission to go at them with the intent to kill! And Gai accepted that mission for them!

But Gai didn't know she had that much hatred for the Aburame.

But she always hid it so she wasn't surprised he didn't know, otherwise, he wouldn't have assigned it to his team. She had wanted to tell him to give the mission to someone else but her hatred for Shino edged out what she truly wanted.

She didn't want him in her life again.

She didn't want her red string to intertwine with his.

But it did and in turn she had lost control.

She let her anger, her vengeance filled heart take control and in that time, all she wanted was to pierce her blade through his chest and into his heart. She wanted him to fill the pain she felt every…single…day since the _"Incident"_. But while she wanted this, she also wanted to leave it be.

She wanted him to feel her pain but she truly didn't want to take it as far as she did but she did and now she can't take it back but she will learn to hone her anger and place it back into her training where it belonged but she knew that if she ever had the chance to fight Shino with no one judging her…

She would pour everything into it.

And maybe if they did fight, maybe then she could put it all behind her and live in peace with her mother, who truly deserved it. Yeah, she wanted to be the top Kunoichi and the top weapon user in Konoha but for the one pillar of light she had left, she would push it all away without question.

But for now, she would continue to train to become the best as her father was.

"But I need to defeat Aburame first…" Tenten murmured softly as she shut her eyes and let a frown form on her face. "Only then I can let my anger grow because at this point father, it is costing me someone both me and my mother need in our lives but I can't go back now…I have to keep going after Aburame…"

And she would.

No matter what.

* * *

Rain: and that ends that chapter. I know it's a short one but a short chapter was bound to happen sooner or later. So what will happen next? Got any suggestions? Review and tell me what's up. So until the next chapter…

Mario: See you next time!


	9. Chapter 9

Rain: Welcome back. I know it's been quite a bit of time from my last update but so many stories, so many ideas, so little time ya know? So the last chapter was about Shino and Tenten's history I swear we will delve into soon but it's time for some fluff, you know? So…

Mario: Here we go!

* * *

**_Naruto: Legend of Team Zero_**

**_Chapter Nine: Flowers_**

"Great, I can't believe we lost that damn kitten," Ino muttered in annoyance while brushing her hair to the side. During the chase for Tora, Shikamaru, Kiba and herself had split up to search for the hell-spawn but she had no idea where the cat had gotten too so now she was just dashing down the streets of Konoha, searching high and low but that's when she noticed something strange.

She saw Shino.

He was just sitting there with his head in his hands against a wooden post. Now what was the normal stoic Aburame doing in the park of all places? It wasn't just that, she could practically feel the waves of sadness pouring out from his lone form and she felt bad for him. During her days at the academy, she really never gave much thought to Shino.

She honestly thought him creepy due to his bugs, which was wrong but she got icked out by them so much but with them now being on the same team, not only during their time looking for Naruto and Hinata but permanently as well, she decided then and there that she was going to get to know him.

But it looks like she would have to cheer him up first.

It was then she saw her mother's flower shop nearby and got a small grin on her face.

* * *

**_Aburame Shino_**

"Alright Shino…You've let yourself grief for what was lost long enough…I need to focus on the task at hand," Shino thought out loud to himself while moving his face from his hands but as he did, he felt something fall on his head. Reaching into his hair, he found a white flower in his hand.

It was then he saw many more starting to fall around him and his confusion grew He wasn't under a tree so where did these come from? Looking up, he saw the bright smile of Ino staring down at him from on top of a light post, her platinum blond hair swaying to the left from the soft breeze lazily.

"Well look who decided to notice me," Ino said to him with a cheeky tone.

"Yamanaka-san…" Shino said softly, questioning where she was here within his mind.

As if Ino was a mind reader, she leapt down beside him and placed her hand on her hips and bent down to his level and explained her presence with "Well, my team and I were searching for the hell-spawn known as Tora and I saw you here all alone so I figured I bring my dose of sunshine to brighten your day."

Shino let a small, almost smooth chuckle leave his lips after looking away from her and asked "And do you think it worked?"

Ino smirked in reply and merely plopped down on her butt next to him and replied "From that chuckle, I say I did my job damn well." Shino once again let a small chuckle leave his lips as he stared at the girl beside him.

There was a time where he honestly thought Ino would not cut it as a shinobi.

It seemed like she focused more on her beauty, keeping bone thin and being more focused on the Uchiha than anyone else but he was proven wrong when she saved him against Tenten and they even worked well enough to take her down.

He never did thank her for jumping in when she did.

(Cue Song! Phoenix Wright: Justice for all Ost: Another Victory)

"Yamanaka-san…While you are here, I do want to say something to you," Shino said with light tone in his voice. Ino quirked her head to the side curiously, causing her hair to slightly cover her face.

Shino looked at her for a moment and couldn't help but look away, thankful for the coat that hid the light blush that was on his pale face.

"I want to apologize to you. Before that mission, I truly did not think you were cut out to be a shinobi due to you being on diets, being worried about you looks and being enamored with the Uchiha but that day when you saved me, you proved me wrong. Not only did you save my life, you were the key to victory so Yamanaka-san…I thank you."

Ino looked away as a fierce blush overtook her face. On the exception of her father, no one really praised her on her skills. Sure, she was praised on her beauty, her fabulous figure and beating Sakura to become the head fangirl of Sasuke's but to hear someone praise her on something that she truly worked hard on behind the scenes really touched her.

"Ha…You probably say all that stuff to all the pretty girls that save your life," Ino responded once she calmed her blush down enough so she could look at him clearly before saying "And you're very welcome Shino-san. We are teammates after all," with a smile on her face.

"That we are Yamanaka-san…" Shino said with a nod and a subtle tone of happiness in his voice.

"Ino…" Ino said with a small grin on her face. "If we're going to be teammates, you have to call me by my first name, Shino-san." Shino could tell she was teasing him by the tone and so he merely nodded.

"Alright…Ino-san," he murmured lowly in agreement.

Ino gave him a bright smile before getting on her feet and holding out her hand for him, saying "Now since you aren't busy, mind helping me for Tora?"

Shino grabbed her hand and let her hoist him while saying "It would be my pleasure, Ino-san."

Ino beamed.

* * *

**_Uzumaki Naruto_**

Naruto watched Ino and Shino walk off to their destination with a small grin on his face.

He had ran all this way to find his partner for the mission to cheer him up only to see him and Ino talking. Hopefully everything would be alright with them but as he turned around, he suddenly found a small brown haired boy slam into him, causing him to take a step back in surprise.

"Hey, what did do that for?! Bumping into me like that!" The small child said while waving his arms up and down at such a quick motion, Naruto only saw his balled up fists.

But upon closer inspection, Naruto found himself recognizing the child.

A few weeks ago, Naruto was trying to play a prank on The Hokage but the little tyke before him was trying to prank the old man and in the end, the Hokage had slyly caused the two of them to fall for the other's trap. Not liking that, Naruto taught the tyke his "Oiroke no Jutsu" and together, they defeated the old man.

But during that time, he found out the exact reason the child wanted to prank the old man. He was tired of everyone seeing him as just "The Hokage's Honorable Grandson" and just wanted everyone to see him as himself and Naruto totally understood that. Now that he knew he was the Kyūbi's Jinchūriki, he knew why everyone ignored and ridiculed him and vowed that he would get everyone to see him as himself and not as the fox.

Hokage or not.

"Now, now Kono, That is no way to talk to your boss," Naruto admonished, playfully wagging his index finger towards the youth.

Konohamaru looked up in surprise before a bright smile formed and immediately assaulted Naruto with a hug while shouting "Naruto-Nii!" which Naruto returned gladly. After the hug, Konohamaru took a step back and said "I haven't seen you forever Naruto-Nii. You said you would visit last week."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the boy's head with a grin and said "Well, A lot of stuff happened to me in that time. Perhaps I can tell you the tale over a bowl of Ramen?"

Konohamaru tilted his head in confusion when his big brother said that word. What in the world was Ramen? He often heard his grandfather say it when he talked to him about Naruto but he never experienced it himself. "Ramen? What's Ramen?" the small boy asked, causing Naruto to look at him in shock.

This…Poor…Child…Didn't…Know…What…Ramen…Was?! Those words were like blasphemy to Naruto's ears. He didn't know what to do. He felt faint but luckily, he was able to hold it together enough to pick up the boy and put him over his shoulder, causing Konohamaru to shriek in surprise.

"The old man has been denying you food for the gods, we so have to get some right now!" Naruto said with horror in his voice as he began to run off with Konohamaru in his arms, the boy laughing but just as Naruto was about to go full speed, he heard a familiar voice shout from behind him.

"Naruto-kun! You found him!"

Naruto slid to a stop as he turned around to see Hinata and Chōji but as he did, he had to bite his bottom lip to refrain from laughing.

From the dried up whip cream on their clothes, the feathers on Chōji's body, the way Hinata's hair was sticking up in the air as well as remnants of honey on the left side of her face, their torn clothes and the fact Chōji's shoe was missing told him he had missed out on some awesome prank.

But when he looked down to Konohamaru and saw the boy pale and begin to squirm with terror in his eyes. Confused at his young friend's reaction, Naruto looked back at Chōji and Hinata and saw barely restrained anger in their eyes which surprised him due to Chōji and Hinata being the kindest people he has ever known.

He then put two and two together and said "Hey Hinata-chan…Chōji…What's up?" while nervously taking a step backwards when he saw the two of them take a forward step.

"Oh hello Naruto-kun," Hinata said a little too pleasantly. "I see you have found our mission from Hokage-sama. Please hand him to me and Chōji-kun so we can complete our mission." Chōji began to cackle lowly while walking forward as Hinata spoke, making Naruto walk backwards, ignoring Konohamaru's prayer under his arm.

"Guys…Surely he couldn't have been that bad…Right?" Naruto asked nervously as Chōji's pace began to quicken, causing Naruto's backwards walking to quicken as well.

"Chōji-kun! Get them before it's too late!" Hinata shouted and with a loud roar, Chōji charged with Hinata following, causing Naruto to immediately run as fast as he could while Konohamaru screamed in pure terror.

As the three shinobi ran, they happened to pass Shikamaru and Kiba, the former of the two holding a sleeping and purring Tora and the latter holding Akamaru, who sleeping soundly in his master's arms but they stopped when they saw the panicked Naruto and angered Chōji and Hinata and immediately turned to each other and said in unison "Do you want to know? No? Then let's go."

* * *

Rain: And that is where I ended it. I decided to make this one a flash of fluff and some silliness but the next chapter we will get down to business on training so no worries and Hopefully, they will be creative so until that chapter…

Mario: See you next time


End file.
